Legend of ChaosJedi
by ChaosJedi
Summary: A change in the status quo means new conflicts for the hero... Please read/review...
1. Beginnings

The Legend of ChaosJedi-- Beginnings  
by Ryan Carroll  
  
Prologue -- Summation and Recap  
  
Eighteen months ago, a teen named Ryan invented the Dimensionalizer, a machine capable of creating transdimensional tunnels. A preliminary test run went awry when an unstable tunnel pulled Sonic the Hedgehog and several of his friends through the tunnel.  
  
The tunnel also brought the Chaos Emeralds to Earth.  
  
The Chaos Emeralds fused themselves to the class rings of Ryan and six of his friends. Team Chaos had been formed. They assisted the Freedom Fighters of Knothole in their fight against Robotnik.  
  
Just three months ago, Robotnik attempted to use transdimensional technology to merge three worlds. His intent is still highly unknown, but his meddling with the dimensional continuum created Chaos8, a bitter young man with the power of the eighth Chaos Emerald. Chaos8 proved to be a more dangerous foe than Robotnik, and only by finding his weak point were Ryan and his friends able to defeat him. But it is still unsure whether Chaos8 is dead or was merely pulled into the Interweb, a hellish anti-dimension capable of erasing the memory of anyone who is unfortunate enough to wind up there...  
  
The events following the world collision led to the draining of Chaos Emeralds in an epic battle. The TC members were forced to recharge the Chaos Emeralds with the Element Stones, and each Emerald gained an elemental power...  
  
Now, a year and a half after the formation of Team Chaos, graduation and college plans are forcing the team apart. Ryan is moving to Arizona to attend Arizona State University, and the other team members are all going their separate ways. But destiny still has plans for the Chaos Emeralds...  
  
  
  
Floating Island, Mobius  
  
Knuckles the Echidna was up late as usual, researching history. The hobby was more of a compulsion than a pastime; the echidna often went for weeks on end without researching, then would feel an inexplicable urge to study. Using an electronic translator Cliff had found some time back, Knux transcribed his documents into standard English, then studied what he found.  
  
This particular document, however, puzzled him. All there seemed to be were sets of numbers and a large triangle.  
  
The enigma was baffling. The triangle could mean any number of things: a sundial, a mountain, a pyramid--  
  
Pyramid. The thought lodged itself in the echidna's mind. If the triangle was to represent the pyramid in Sandopolis, then the numbers could be... coordinates?  
  
Knuckles decided that he would have to check this out.  
  
Tomorrow. It was well past midnight now, and the bed across the room looked very inviting. Knux gave into his need for sleep, carefully tidying up his desk and placing the parchment with the figures in the drawer before turning out the light.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------  
  
I was about to leave for Arizona, but I knew there was one thing I had to do. I had to meet with the rest of the team one last time.  
  
We met at our usual spot: The Hideaway. We sat in the lounge reminiscing about the events of the past year and a half, the events that had brought us together, and the fun we might have missed had the Dimensionalizer never happened. Finally I had to leave, as I needed to pack for my long drive the next day.  
  
"It's been real, guys."  
  
"We're gonna miss you, man. What's gonna happen to the team once you leave?"  
  
"I don't know. What do you think? One last time?"  
  
"Let's do it!"  
  
The usual bright flash ensued, but instead of our armor activating the way it usually did, the seven of us saw the Chaos Emeralds hovering in a circle over our heads...  
  
--------------------------------------------------------  
  
"Going somewhere, Knuckles?"  
Knux mentally kicked himself. He _thought_ he'd gotten up before anyone else, but then he remembered that Talon always got up at dawn to check on Hidden Palace. Bright kid, but the echidna thought he was a bit too eager at times.  
  
"I was just going to follow up on some research." Well, if Tal was up anyway... "Would you like to help?"  
  
"Yes, sir!" The anteater's eyes glowed with anticipation.  
  
"What have I told you about calling me 'sir'?" Knux growled through clenched teeth, although a smile soon followed. "I'll overlook it... _this_ time. Come on."  
  
--------------------------------------------------------  
  
"I worked this out on a computer model first," Knuckles explained as he led Talon down a dim passageway. "There are basically six reference points I could have used for this set of coordinates: the five apexes of the pyramid and the entrance. Unfortunately using those coordinates I always wound up with a few coordinate points outside the pyramid. So I wondered if a room _inside_ the pyramid could be used for reference, and I picked the most obvious one."  
  
"The Master Sword room?"  
  
"Precisely. I've got everything mapped out here..."  
  
Talon fingered the camera around his neck as he watched the holographic display...  
  
--------------------------------------------------------  
  
Knuckles and I were perusing the pictures he and Talon had taken the day before. What I saw astounded me: a series of fresco paintings that portrayed what had just happened to me the day before.  
  
In short, there had been another bright flash, and I had found myself the sole owner of the Chaos Emeralds. I was currently "in Atlanta", and I was supposed to be asleep, but I could use the emeralds during my drive for the extra energy.  
  
"So you think this is the emeralds' way of selecting a single Guardian?"  
  
"Well, I'm more inclined to think of it as God's way of doing that. I find it easier to attribute events to God than to attribute sentience to inanimate objects."  
  
"Then how do you explain the Master Sword? And Chaos8?"  
  
"Examples of how sin corrupts. You know, it's weird, but I haven't seen Jay or Robin since the time machine incident. How would they know about something I haven't told them about?"  
  
"Time machine incident... Don't remind me."  
  
"Yeah, I'd still like to know what happened with that neurotoxin thing. What was it, one of Robotnik's little experiments?"  
  
"It wasn't Robotnik this time. It was Kardot."  
  
My confused look prompted Knuckles to explain the events that had happened some time ago, back when the split between Knuckles and Sonic was still fresh. He concluded with how the android had fallen into the ravine on Floating Island and hadn't been found later. "Don't ask me how," he continued, "but I think she managed to infect me with this gunk. I analyzed it and found trace elements of a rare neurotoxin in there. Apparently she'd done a little chemistry experiment."  
  
"How did she manage to infect you?"  
  
"Probably during that swordfight."  
  
"Well, that would explain a lot. Now what about a name for myself? I'm not exactly Team Chaos all by myself anymore."  
  
Knux smiled. "I've been thinking about that. What's your weapon of choice?"  
  
I grinned in reply. "The lightsaber, of course."  
  
"So that makes you some sort of ChaosJedi."  
  
"ChaosJedi. I like it!"  
  
"And when you're in your persona, we can call you CJ."  
  
"Nice. This should prove interesting in future missions." I grinned madly. "Bad guys, look out!"  
  
Little did I know that in the next month I would need to look out myself. And that everything familiar to me was about to turn for the worse.  
  
-------------------------------------------------------  
  
College took my mind off my double life for a week. I was making new friends, and even got to know a girl in my dorm. Her name was Christine, and she happened to be in a couple of my classes. Life was going great...  
  
And then, in under a minute, it went straight to the depths of the Interweb in an express elevator.  
  
It all started innocently enough. Christine asked me if I wanted to walk with her. I had actually considered telling her about my double life, possibly even taking her with me through the dimensional portal, so I agreed. Besides, I needed the exercise.  
  
We walked out to a little-known park and just talked about stuff. I was just about to confess to her about my secret life when she suddenly stopped, shivering.  
  
"Chris? Are you okay? What's wrong?"  
  
"I feel cold..."  
  
I moved to embrace her, thinking she was just chilly from a passing breeze... then I saw what was really happening.  
  
Her hands were fading out. She was being erased from existence.  
  
"NO!" I stood there numbly as Christine vanished from sight.  
  
-------------------------------------------------------  
  
The way I walked was no indication to anyone in Knothole of the horror I'd just experienced. Neither could anyone tell by my tone of voice.  
  
The haunted look on my face... _that_ I think was the primary indicator of my mental torment. The second Slasher saw me, she guided me into her hut and sat me down on the cot. "What's wrong?" she asked me.  
  
The question was not yet halfway out of her mouth when I simply broke down. My head went straight to her shoulder and didn't leave the spot until I'd recomposed myself. After that the next twenty minutes or so was a blurry mess. I think I may have explained what happened, I'm not quite sure. Whether my ramblings were lucid or even followed a common thread is beyond my capability to remember. All I know is that when I finished, Slasher shook her head and spoke one word: "Chaos8."  
  
That was more than my brain could handle. I blacked out on the spot.  
  
I awoke to find Slasher, Knux, and-- surprisingly-- Gage Blackwood standing over me. The first words out of my mouth were "What happened?"  
  
"You passed out. Call it a mental Blue Screen of Death if you want."  
  
"Funny, Gage. I'm not exactly in the mood for jokes at the moment."  
  
"Sorry, I guess experiencing a temporal anomaly firsthand can be pretty traumatic."  
  
Two of the words he used clicked. "Wait a minute. 'Temporal anomaly'? As in 'someone's messing around with time again' anomaly?"  
  
"Precisely Watson. The name Christine Monroe ring a bell?"  
  
"That's the girl. She was wonderful. Maybe not the girl God had for me... but now I'll never know."  
  
"She wasn't supposed to die. Premature death a few years back in the time stream. I found this newspaper clipping in my research... The police reports are a little fuzzy on cause of death, but I dug a little deeper. She turned up in the FBI's 'X-Files'. Take a look at this picture."  
  
I took the picture from the Temporal Protectorate agent, glancing at it. I quickly dropped it with a cry of "Oh my--!"  
  
"What is it?" Knux inquired, picking up the photo. In under a second a long, low whistle escaped his lips.  
  
My voice was a dead monotone, threatening another faint on my part. "Lightsaber to the heart. If she screamed, it wasn't very loud or long."  
  
Slasher glanced at the pic, then turned away in revulsion. "Chaos8," she reiterated.  
  
"Only one with the saber, the grudge, and the connection. It's strange; now that I think about it, I've been feeling a dark presence every so often walking around campus, but I never made the connection." I looked at Gage. "We have a date?"  
  
Gage nodded and said, "I'll request a Jumpsuit for you."  
  
"No need," I replied. I stood up and energized the Chaos Emeralds. "Jumpsuit Activate..." I muttered, and I was surrounded by a green glow that soon materialized into a genuine Jumpsuit.  
  
"You realize that I could confiscate that suit as contraband time travel equipment," Gage admonished.  
  
"Yes, but it can't be used by anyone other than me. To take it off, I just deactivate it and it dissolves instantly."  
  
"Well, all right. You know what you need to do?"  
  
"I find Christine, track her, and take out Chaos8 before he can get to her."  
  
"Check. Good luck."  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
Tracking Christine proved to be easy enough. I merely created a bicycle for myself with the green emerald and timed my pass so that I would fall right in behind her as she headed home. She always walked alone; she had told me that she was a dreamer, always imagining entire worlds whenever she got the chance.  
  
A girl after my own heart.  
  
As I followed her, I watched her like a hawk, glancing away occasionally to avoid suspicion. When she stopped at the mouth of an alley, I knew that this was my cue to close in. She started in the alley right about the time I reached it. I followed her into the darkness, until I heard a sound that to this day sends a chill up my spine.  
  
It was the drone of Chaos8's blacksaber.  
  
To call it a lightsaber would be to deny the very nature of the weapon. The blade, like 8's armor plating, drank in any light it found. It blended in with shadow, making it a lethal weapon in a fight in darkness. By entering the alley I was giving away my only advantage. My hearing detected a change in the pitch of the saber's drone; I knew that if I didn't do something _that_ instant that I would lose Christine. I did what any normal person on the brink of sanity would do: I drew my own saber and charged down the alley screaming inhumanly all the while.  
  
I must have taken 8 by suprise, because instead of running into his saber like the last remaining logical corner of my mind had expected to, I connected with his body and sent the armored wraith flying. Reason caught up with me for a moment, and I stood there, waiting for the attack to come. My grip on the handle twisted, and the modification I had installed into my saber (the one I had totally forgotten about in light of recent events) kicked in.  
  
The solar spectrum modification.  
  
The modification was simple once you knew how it worked. Rather than giving off one single color of light, the blade of the sword gave off the entire solar spectrum at once... toned down enough that it wouldn't blind you, of course. The intensity of the blade was still great enough to light up the alleyway, however, and I soon saw Chaos8, slowly getting up from where he stood. I pointed my saber in his face. "You can mess with me all you like," I whispered maliciously, "but you DON'T MESS WITH MY FRIENDS!"  
  
His reflexes were quick, but I was quicker. I nailed the weak spot in his armor, and he collapsed into the Interweb again, screaming the whole way.  
  
I turned to Christine, where she cowered against the wall. I switched off the saber but enhanced the glow of my "energy vest", which is how my enhanced Chaos Emeralds manifested themselves. I offered her my hand. "Don't worry, child. He won't harm you again."  
  
"Wh-who are you?"  
  
"Someone who cares for you. That's all you need know for now."  
  
"Where did that other guy go, the one in black?"  
  
"I don't think you want to know. That's better left unsaid."  
  
"Will I ever see you again?"  
  
"I guarantee it. Tell no one of this until I return to you."  
  
"Are you kidding? No one would believe me anyway."  
  
I smiled and time-warped out of sight.  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
I had set my coordinates to the exact location Christine had disappeared, and as I watched, she reappeared in front of me. She immediately fell into my arms. "Oh, Ryan, it was horrible! It was like I was dead, but something happened. It was..." She gasped. "It was that guy in the alley! He saved my life! He said he was..."  
  
"Someone who cares for you?"  
  
"Yeah, that's exactly what he said. ...Wait a minute. How did you know? And why are you glowing?"  
  
I smiled and reactivated the emeralds. She jumped. "It was YOU! But how...? What...? ...That's it, you're telling me everything."  
  
"Gladly. But you're going to have to try some things out for yourself. Come on, we're heading back to my room."  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"Is this some sort of TV screen or something? It looks weird."  
  
I laughed. "No, this is what we have come to call the Dimensionalizer."  
  
"We?"  
  
"There used to be a Team Chaos. I think I'll get you in touch with Jason after you meet the rest of the crew."  
  
"The 'rest of the crew'?"  
  
"You'll see what I mean." I punched in the last of the coordinates and the portal roared to life.  
  
"I think you need to adjust your reception, you're getting static."  
  
"Funny, Chris. Go ahead. Touch it."  
  
She reached out to the portal and got within an inch before she flipped out. "You've got to be crazy."  
  
"Fine, I'll go first." With that I walked into the portal.  
  
"Hey, wait for me-- AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!"  
  
I caught Christine as she flew by. "You okay?" Apparently the sight of flying through and beyond outer space had prompted her to hold her breath. "Look, you can breathe, you know."  
  
"What the--" she breathed. "What IS this place?"  
  
"This is a dimensional tunnel. We're headed for a totally different world."  
  
"I want to turn around. I don't know if I'm ready for this."  
  
"Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to change directions while in the stream. We're on a one-way street, girl."  
  
"Well that makes me feel much better. What was it like when you first did this?"  
  
"I landed flat on my face when I came out the other end. Don't worry, I'll go out first and catch you as you come out. It won't be a problem."  
  
------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Well, I did go out first, and I did catch Chris as she came out... Unfortunately, her foot hit a stone and we both went down. I was underneath, and I just happened to land dead center on the rock.  
  
"YEOW! Getoffgetoffgetoff!"  
  
Christine quickly got up and I rolled away from where I lay in agony. Christine muttered something I didn't catch and kiced the rock... and promptly let out a yelp.  
  
"What?" I inquired, still in pain from landing on the stupid thing. "Stub your toe?"  
  
"No... It's hard to explain, but that rock felt like it was... electric!"  
  
"Huh? Let me see that..." I dove to pick up the rock, ignoring the jolts of pain in my back from the act. I noticed a faint internal glow, and recalled something that Knux had mentioned a while back...  
  
I immediately began pounding the rock on a nearby boulder.  
  
"What the heck are you doing?" Chris asked, obviously puzzled.  
  
"A friend told me about a lost piece of a huge emerald... I think you may have just found it..."  
  
When cracks began forming in the surface of the stone, I took to prying the crumbling dirt off the gem... A large chunk of clay fell from the surface of the emerald, and a bright beam of light shot from the hole in the crust.  
  
"Pay dirt."  
  
I stowed the rock in a pocket and led Christine into Knothole. Everyone was indoors from the cold weather, so I went straight to Slasher's hut. "Hey, Slash, I've got a guest!"  
  
I stepped behind Christine as Slasher opened the door. "Slasher, this is Christine; Chris, this is--"  
  
I grabbed Chris as she slumped into my arms.  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"You ok?"  
  
"Yeah, it's just a bit of a shock seeing a live raptor open a door right in front of you. You could have warned me."  
  
"I didn't get much warning when I first met up with Slasher. I thought I'd let you have as much fun as I did with it."  
  
"Oh yeah, real fun. Any other weird things I should know about?"  
  
"Only that you found something I've been missing for over three years," Knux interjected. I wondered if Christine was going to faint again on seeing a bright red echidna walking into the room, but she seemed to take it in stride.  
  
"So that is the missing chunk of the Master Emerald?" I inquired.  
  
"The one and only. Painful, was it?"  
  
"Nearly broke my back, but aside from that, nah."  
  
"How is you back, anyway? This piece isn't all that small."  
  
"Ah, I'll be fine, I'm just giving Christine a hard time. In fact, I should introduce you. Knux, this is Christine, the amazing disappearing woman; Chris, this is Knuckles Echidna, Guardian of the Floating Island."  
  
"Charmed. Any other interesting friends I've yet to meet?" She paused. "Am I smelling chili dogs?"  
  
"Yeah. Sonic must be cooking lunch today."  
  
"Sonic? As in the blue hedgehog Sonic?"  
  
----------------------------------------------------------------  
  
It turned out that Chris was a big Sonic fan and had played nearly all the Sonic games in existence. Go figure.  
  
She and Slasher became fast friends in the time span of our relatively short visit. At one point I walked in on the two of them talking, and they stopped and simply stared at me. I took the hint and left. Knux called me over as I closed the door behind me.  
  
"What do you think about giving Christine the Xiro stone?" he inquired as I approached.  
  
"The Chaos Amber?" I replied, clarifying that we were indeed talking about the same object. "I don't know, do you think she's ready for the responsibility? I mean she's only been aware of Mobius for a few hours..."  
  
"When she walked under it earlier, I noticed a definite glow emanating from the stone. If there's a definite Bearer, she's the one."  
  
I recalled the things I'd had to go through to get that chunk of fossilzed sap in the first place, only to discover that no one I knew on either Mobius or Earth was the designated Bearer. The caretaker had mentioned the glow, and it only made sense that Christine would be the Bearer.  
  
I decided to test my theory based on the prophecies of the caretaker...  
  
----------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"When you meet the Bearer, she will befriend you quickly. You will cause her death, then you will rewrite history to bring her back. When the Bearer receives the Xiro stone by your hand, her romance will blossom into true love; and seven will become two; then two, one."  
  
----------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Well, I didn't know about the two becoming one part (I didn't have plans for marriage until well after college) but I had a feeling that the prophecy was coming along just fine so far. I figured the next part to be tested was the whole "true love" bit. It sounded like it belonged in The Princess Bride rather than my life, but I was willing to keep an open mind.  
  
When Christine entered the hut, I levitated up to where the Chaos Amber was hanging on the pendant Knux had set it in, then lowered to the floor. "Christine, a few of us have talked about it, and I feel that you should have this pendant." I hung the stone around her neck.  
  
"What is it?" she inquired as she examined the pendant.  
  
"It's the Xiro stone. Chaos Amber by another name. Apparently only one person is eligible to wear it, and by all appearances, that person is you."  
  
"What does it do?"  
  
"Well, it's not like the Chaos Emeralds; you won't have the powers of the elements. But you will have enhanced natural abilities: better hearing, better sight, faster speed, better agility. You know, we could make a good team."  
  
I glanced around the room, at Slasher, Sonic, Serena, Tails, Knuckles, and the others in the room, hoping that what I figured would happen wouldn't.  
  
No such luck. "Oh, Ryan..." With that she threw her arms around me and planted her lips on mine.  
  
When I became conscious of my surroundings, the room was empty except for the two of us. I smiled; Slasher was always the soul of discretion. I turned my attention back to Chris. "Wow. Is that for saving your life or for giving you the pendant?"  
  
"More than both of those. I can't explain it, but I think you may be the person God intended for me."  
  
"I'm beginning to think the same thing."  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------  
  
We returned to our dimension that night, and over the course of the next week I worked on a portal frame for Christine. Unfortunately, before I could finish it, I was called to an emergency meeting in Knothole, so I took Christine with me.  
  
Little did I know that life for both of us was about to go to heck in a handbasket.  
  
End Beginnings 


	2. Greater of Two Evils

Legend of ChaosJedi-- Greater of Two Evils  
by Ryan Carroll  
  
The portal frame stood there. Looking like a bad high school science project, the PVC pipes and deformed CDs stood as a testament to science fiction turned fact.  
The framework consisted of a set of PVC piping welded together, a series of holes punched at regular 5-inch intervals. At each of the holes a compact disc was attached, deformed and melted into a rough cone shape. At the center of each CD was a portal emitter, a small wonder of technology. The wiring synchronizing the emitters ran through the pipes and culminated in a cable leading to a laptop PC. As the final set of coordinates was entered, the portal sprang to life, looking like liquid tin foil. The surface of the portal reflected all light and rippled like water, but gave off no discernible or recognizable reflection like a mirror would. Though you couldn't tell by the surface, if the dimensional link was unstable, the portal was capable of hurricane force winds either inwardly, like a vacuum, or outwardly, like a wind tunnel, depending on which end of the dimensional link you were on.  
  
Chaos8 looked intrigued.  
  
"You mean to tell me that THIS is what makes trans-dimensional travel possible?"  
"What were you expecting?" Dr. Robotnik sneered. "A highly-modified DeLorean car? I took this design from the source."  
  
"You stole it from the brat, huh? I misjudged you; you are a sneak. I like that."  
  
"I heard that you just got out of the Interweb yourself. What was it this time?"  
  
"I managed to come out of that place with the ability to time travel, and I wanted to make the freak pay for sending me there. I saw that he was interested in a girl, and went back in time to kill her before she could meet him. I know how temporal distortion waves work, and I knew that he would see her disappear in front of his face. Somehow he knew about it and sent me back to the Interweb. ...Again."  
  
"You know," the roboticist conjectured, stroking his moustache, "with this portal you could wreak havoc in any number of parallel worlds. Tell you what: I will give this portal to you on one condition."  
  
"Let me guess: Kill Sonic the Hedgehog."  
  
"You're catching on."  
  
A shadow stirred in the corner. "I do not agree with this deal, Dr. Robotnik." Metal Sonic glided into the lighted center of the room. "Sssssonic is mine to kill. No other can have him."  
  
"Very well, Mecha." Robotnik turned back to Chaos8. "Don't kill him then, but bring him back alive..." He waited a beat. "The condition of the body isn't important, just that he has a pulse." Mecha glared, but nodded consent.  
  
------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"So our sightings of Chaos8 have been verified?"  
  
"Absolutely. Managed to get this picture last night." Slasher handed me a photo of the armored wraith stealing his way through Robotropolis.  
  
"Why can't this freak just stay dead?" I muttered, primarily to myself.  
  
Christine overheard me. "Relax, Ryan. With the two of us working together with the Freedom Fighters, we can take him."  
  
Sally cut in. "Unfortunately, from what reconnaisance we've managed to get, it appears that Chaos8 may be working with Robotnik."  
  
"Just what we don't need, an evil alliance. Robotnik, bad. Chaos8, very bad. The two of them together? That's on the scale of Jurassic Park bad." Slasher gave me a funny look at that comment. "What? You didn't hear about the accident that happened there a few years back?"  
  
"I hadn't heard a thing, why?"  
  
"Some idiot knocked the security system offline for a few hours in the middle of a freak tropical storm. The dinos got out of their designated areas and caused a huge mess. Very few survivors."  
  
"And how did you come to know of this?"  
  
"I know some people down at N-Gen. You can't keep a disaster of that magnitude quiet."  
  
"You really think anything survived?"  
  
"I don't know. No one's ever been back."  
  
"Aren't we getting a bit off track here?" Christine reminded us.  
  
"You're right," I agreed. "So what's the best way to assault Robotnik's fortress?"  
  
"We'll need some hefty weaponry if we're going to do that, and we don't have the resources for that."  
  
"I have an idea that'll take care of that. Anything else?"  
  
"Just the huge number of SWATbots that have been patrolling the streets lately. Nothin' major," Sonic chimed in.  
  
"We're not looking for sarcasm; anyway, my idea will cover that too. Anything else?"  
  
"No," Slasher replied. "So what's your idea?"  
  
"Get the Virtualizer set up."  
  
------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Within three minutes I was exiting the Virtualizer with the last load of weaponry. "Well, Quake 3 Arena actually came in handy for something."  
  
"So what are these things and how do they work?" Sonic wanted to know.  
  
I hefted a rifle in my hands. "See that can about 100 yards away?"  
  
"Yeah, what about it?"  
  
"I had Spark take a basket about a mile back that way."  
  
"And?"  
  
I raised the rifle to my shoulder, got the can in my scope, and fired. A corkscrewing plume of smoke flew away from the barrel, and the can virtually disappeared. Sonic went after it, and came back with basket in tow. the can lay in the bottom of the basket. "What IS that thing?"  
  
"This is a railgun. One of these things shot at a SWATbot from that range will knock the thing back about 30 feet, disabling it."  
  
"Yeah, but the factories can crank those things out at about 10 a minute."  
  
"That's what THESE are for," I replied, hefting what looked like a mini-cannon. "I'm not even going to think about firing this off here. It's a rocket launcher. Fire this baby into the heart of a factory and Robotnik will be down that many bots. Carpeting is the best method for using these things."  
  
"So why don't we use these on the SWATbots?"  
  
"The splash damage might hurt someone on our team. That's a bad thing."  
  
"But couldn't they backtrack the smoke trail of the rails?"  
  
"Only if you don't keep moving."  
  
"Right. I'll keep that in mind."  
  
"So who's on the team? I know it'll be you and Slasher of course, and Christine and I are coming, but we need a couple more to round out the group."  
  
"I was thinking of Serena, Knux, and Tails. And one more person..."  
  
"Yeah, I guess Serena and Tails can take care of themselves well enough. But who else are you thinking of?"  
  
------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"You just can't get enough of me, can you, Little Lug?"  
  
"You can knock off the Little Lug bit, 'Big Lug'; I'm as tall as you are now."  
  
"So where's the lovely girl I keep hearing about?" Jason inquired, stepping beyond me.  
  
"I'm right here," Chris replied. She glanced over at me. "Little Lug?" she repeated, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Long story," I responded, cutting off that topic abruptly.  
  
"Hey, Ryan, how did you manage to get a good-looking girlfriend before I did?"  
  
"Um, Jason, can we talk about this LATER? We did ask you to come for a reason, ya know."  
  
"Oh, right. Where's 'the team' assembling?"  
  
"Right here," Slasher replied as the rest of the small group filed into the hut.  
  
"Well, the Freedom Fighters' own run and gun team. Cool."  
  
"Jason, you've just given me a flash of inspiration."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"That's what we'll name the team: the Freedom Fighters' Run and Gun team. The FFRAG team!"  
  
"Hey, that's catchy. And it works, too."  
  
"All right, everyone has their assignment. Let's move. If we mobilize fast enough, we may hit them hard enough and fast enough that they won't know what's going on until after the SWATbot factories are piles of smoldering wreckage."  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------------  
  
We moved quickly, splitting into pairs, with Jason teaming with Christine. I found his actions annoying (who the heck did he think he was anyway?), but I didn't dwell on them. Sonic and I went after the factory in the northwestern corner of the city, while Slasher and Knux took the southeast quadrant. Since neither Serena nor Tails could lift a rocket launcher, I had them cover for the rest of us from posts around the city with railguns. Tails airlifted Serena to different locations every so often, thereby providing coverage for all the team members.  
  
"...RAG one, ...is sky FFRAG, ...ome in."  
  
I adjusted the frequency slightly to account for the static. "We're here, Tails; what's up?"  
  
"Besides me, you mean? You've got a huge squad of SWATbots coming up on your tail. They're marching in a perfectly straight line, by the way."  
  
"One rail fits all," I replied as I turned and fired a slug into the head SWAT in line. The near lightspeed velocity of the projectile caused the shot to tear through each bot in succession and threw the whole mass of them against a far wall. "I love this thing."  
  
"The factory's over here." Sonic indicated a massive building several hundred yards away spouting even more massive clouds of smoke.  
  
"Right, I'll just use the scope here to find the power source, and..." My voice trailed off as I discovered something rather disturbing: eggs were interspersed throughout the factory. And since I was using an x-ray scope, I could see what the eggs held.  
  
These weren't just any old eggs. These were Chao eggs.  
  
My hand went straight for the radio. "This is FFRAG one to all FFRAG units: hold your rocket fire, repeat, DO NOT FIRE ROCKETS! We have... I guess you could call it a hostage situation here."  
  
----------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"I must say, Doc, the idea of putting those fragile eggs in the factories to ensure their operation was sheer brilliance."  
  
"Well, my young protege, I must have insurance against certain, shall we say, unnatural disasters."  
  
Chaos8 bristled at the term "protege", but said nothing. He turned his head slightly. "He's here. Shall I put phase one into effect?"  
  
"Yes, you may go."  
  
Chaos8 stepped onto his ebony hoverboard and flew off toward the city.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"Did Ryan just say what I thought he said?"  
  
"You're the one with the enhanced hearing. I heard him say that there were Chao eggs in the factories."  
  
"That's what I heard him say as well. But there's one thing I don't understand. What the heck is a Chao?"  
  
Jason explained to Christine about the adventure some time back with the merged worlds, the battle with Perfect Chaos, and the remnants left behind after the merged worlds. "So these eggs must be unhatched Chao."  
  
"So how do we wipe out the factories without hurting them?"  
  
"Simple: we wait."  
  
----------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"Tails, you got those eggs triangulated yet?"  
  
"The coordinates should be in your scanner now."  
  
I activated the hologram of the building, now with three glowing points indicating the relative positions of the Chao eggs. "Great work, sky FFRAG; go do the same with the other two factories."  
  
"Roger, FFRAG one."  
  
I turned to Sonic. "How fast do you think you could get through that factory and--"  
  
Sonic was standing there with three Chao eggs.  
  
"Never mind. Can you do that with the other two and get the eggs back to Knothole--"  
  
Sonic was empty-handed. "Done."  
  
I rubbed my eyes. "I must be slow today. I've never seen you move _that_ fast."  
  
"It's a gift."  
  
"So I gathered." I raised the rocket launcher's scope to my face to check, and sure enough, all   
the eggs were gone. "All FFRAG units report."  
  
Everyone reported that the eggs were indeed gone, and back in Knothole, Talon reported that Sonic had dropped the eggs off and had time to grab a snack while he was at it. I shrugged it off.  
  
"All units fire at will."  
  
The three factories were rubble within a minute and a half.  
  
"Excellent work. Drop the rocket launchers and meet at rendezvous point Beta with rails only.   
We're going after the mastermind once and for all."  
  
--------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Chaos8 watched the foolish heroes congregate to the fortress. This was his chance to take them all out. He would merely wait until they were bottlenecked at the fortress doors...  
  
--------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"So what is this item you wanted to keep secret from Chaos8?"  
  
"This, Mecha, is what will allow me to defeat that brat who has the Chaos Emeralds. I can extract the Element Stones from the Emeralds and have both sets of gems. Then I will be victorious..."  
  
"Think again, Eggs-for-brains!"  
  
Robotnik turned to see the eight of us break into his study. Fortunately for us, we managed to catch him by surprise.  
  
Unfortunately for us, we didn't manage the same with Mecha. He was well in motion by the time I noticed him flanking our group. He grabbed my wrist. Without thinking, I sent an electric charge through his circuits.  
  
It didn't work. He was floating in mid-air, providing no ground for my electric attack. I was about to react by reversing my gravity when he pried the Chaos Emerald ring off my finger.   
  
Suddenly the robot's death grip became excruciatingly painful as the protective energy of the emeralds was stripped away from me. I went to my knees in agony.  
  
As I watched Robotnik put the ring in his device, the grip on my wrist suddenly went slack. I turned to see what had happened, only to find Chaos8 throwing Mecha across the room.  
  
Robotnik happened to notice as well. "Chaos8! What are you doing?!?"  
  
"The brat is mine, Doc. You can have the hedgehog, but you can't have the kid."  
  
"Kid? EXCUSE me, but I'm in college, you nightmarish freak," I broke in.  
  
"Yes, and you're powerless without your precious emeralds." He stalked toward me. The others stood petrified, not knowing what to do. I knew I had to act, so I pulled out my double-bladed lightsaber. "That may be, but just remember that these things don't have _built-in safety features_."  
  
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Knuckles get my hint, and just in time, too; 8 charged me at that very second. I lit both blades and returned the assault.  
  
As Robotnik extracted each pair of gems from my ring, he set the stones in a rack, the cut Chaos Emeralds in one row, the smooth Element Stones in another. The last pair to be extracted was the green emerald and the Light Stone; Robotnik started to gloat, until two things happened simultaneously...  
  
The first thing that happened: Knux snapped up his railgun and shot the green emerald out of its place in the rack. The indestructible gem created a hole in the wall behind where it had sat. As the other gems fell to the ground, Robotnik tried to pick them up. He grabbed the red stone...  
  
And with a fiery flash, six more holes were created in the ceiling as the Chaos Emeralds were once again scattered across the continent.  
  
The second event: Chaos8 knocked me to the floor, and I screamed out a prayer of protection to God. Apparently it worked, as the Element Stones flew toward me as if guided by the hand of God Himself. My body inexplicably absorbed the stones, and I flipped onto my feet, recharged and ready to send Chaos8 back to the place from whence he came.  
  
Deciding to beat a hasty retreat, 8 ran for the portal frame Robotnik had set up across the study.  
  
Portal frame? My mind raced. If Chaos8 escaped into another dimension, who knew what kind of havoc he could cause with me unable to track him! Chaos8 leaped into the portal...  
  
...and out the other side, Robotnik having unplugged the thing at the last second.  
  
"What the-- You double-crossing idiot! What have you done?"  
  
"It's not what I've done, it's what you failed to do. You didn't bring Sonic to me alive but captive like I said; therefore you didn't fulfill your end of the deal."  
  
To punctuate the doctor's words, I hit the weak spot in 8's armor, sending him back to the Interweb for the umpteenth time. "I'll get you for this, Robotnik! It'll be sooner than you think!" he screamed as his body crumpled in on itself until there was no sign he'd ever been in the room.  
  
I turned my attention to Robotnik. "You're next, Doc."  
  
Without warning, Robotnik uttered an inhuman scream. Even I took a step back from him as he fell to his knees, still screaming. "The pain! Make it stop!"  
  
All over Robotnik's body, black armor plating began forming.  
  
"What's happening to him?" Christine asked.  
  
The scream changed pitch until it sounded like Chaos8's voice was merging with Robotnik's.  
  
"Oh my... Chaos8 is getting his revenge. He's taking over Robotnik's mind, and probably sending Robotnik into the Interweb..." I shivered. "I would never have thought it possible."  
The scream suddenly died out. The black figure took a deep breath... and laughed. "Did you think you could keep me in the Interweb forever, boy? Now I'm in charge of things around here, and I say it's time to take over Mobius once and for all. But first, I need to do some housecleaning." Chaos8 waved his hand, and the portal inexplicably came on, sucking in anything within range with hurricane force winds. Chaos8 continued to talk, barely audible above the sudden whirlwind in the room. "I set the controls to randomize dimensions every few seconds. I hope you enjoy your new homes, as that's where you'll be staying, FOREVER!"  
  
Everyone else was sucked into the portal in a matter of seconds; I managed to dig my fingers into the carpet and hold out a little longer. Chaos8 stomped on my hands, and I let go for a moment, sliding closer to that awful portal. I grabbed the nearest object I could find, but even the weight of that didn't stop my drift. I didn't let go of whatever it was that I was holding until I felt myself land in whatever dimension I happened to get dropped into. The portal frame behind me shorted out and broke with a pyrotechnic flash. I looked around and breathed a sigh of relief as I recognized my dorm room. I paused to look at what I had dragged through the portal with me.  
  
"Oh no."  
  
Mecha was just standing up from where he had landed after coming through the portal.  
  
To Be Continued... 


	3. Eye of the Storm part 1: Where is Everyo...

Legend of ChaosJedi-- Eye of the Storm, Part I  
by Ryan Carroll  
  
The tunnel's randomness was more of a continuous cycle among four destinations. With one origin and four cycling destinations... Though there was no matter to speak of in interdimensional space, there was still the energy created by the constant cycling. The transdimensional storm was the first of its kind to ever be created, and judging by its growth rate, it would have serious effects on interdimensional travel...  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"I find this unacceptable."  
  
"The blasted machine will not work. What do I have to do to get that through that thick metal skull of yours?"  
  
"Why can you not hook me up to your computer to scan the code?"  
  
"One, I don't trust you. Two, you might upload a virus. Three, you might copy the code for your own use."  
  
"Two and three fall under the same category as one, do they not?"  
I ignored Mecha. "Four, you don't know what you'd be looking for; and five, you have no connectors that are compatible with my computer anyway. You weren't designed to interface with a personal computer, that's all there is to it."  
  
"And yet I must trust _you_ to get me back to Mobius."  
  
"And I have to trust _you_ not to stab me in the back in the process. Besides, I'm sure you'd rather trust me than Sonic."  
  
"I never want to hear you speak that name again."  
  
The quiet rage in his voice made me turn to face the robot. "Why _do_ you hate him so much?"  
  
"Everyone knows I am merely a copy. I want to be the only Ssssonic in existence!"  
  
"I don't know, I think you'd make a better Mecha than you would a Sonic. You can't live your life trying to be someone you're not. That's not how things work."  
  
"What would you know about that?"  
  
"I know, okay? Half my life has been spent trying to fit some mold, whether I made that mold myself or someone else made it for me. No one is meant to fit the mold; that's why everyone was designed to be different."  
  
"You are saying I was never meant to replace Ssssonic?"  
  
"That may have been Robotnik's intention, but it doesn't have to be the end result."  
  
"You are saying that I would do better to just be myself?"  
  
"That's the way I see it. You might find it that much easier to look in the mirror and like what you see."  
  
"You are just saying that."  
  
"Honestly, I'm not. I look at it this way: you were designed by Knuckles, who at the time hated Sonic. This is because Robotnik lied to him. Robotnik's hatred for Sonic rubbed off on you, and you've hated him ever since. Now look at the current state of Mobius. Chaos8 has taken over Robotnik's body. Packbell's long gone, and who knows where the heck Robo Knux disappeared to. If he's smart he'll find a nice big rock to hide under until Chaos8 is defeated. Everything you've existed for is gone. All that's left of Robotnik is the shell of the man that was there. The real Doc is probably drifting through the Interweb, slowly losing his memory bit by bit. If he ever manages to get out of there, he won't be Robotnik, he'll be an amnesiac walking around in what used to be Chaos8's body."  
  
"Can we not rescue Dr. Robotnik?"  
  
"I don't know if you'd be able to find your way out OR if you wouldn't lose your memory too. I'm sure not about to volunteer to have my memory wiped."  
  
"The I must work for Chaos8 when I return to Mobius."  
  
I couldn't believe my ears. "What!?"  
  
"It is all that is left for me. I am an agent of evil. I always have been. Why change now?"  
  
"Because you CAN change. Chaos8 would crush your head the first time you ever failed him."  
  
"A fitting end to my existence."  
  
"What, to be destroyed by the monster who betrayed your master?"  
  
"If it comes to that... yes."  
  
I shook my head. "And I thought you were smart."  
  
THAT got Mecha's attention. "And what is _that_ supposed to mean?"  
  
"You'd rather risk geting yourself killed than side with the good guys."  
  
"That has never stopped me before."  
  
"Except once."  
  
"...What?"  
  
I knew I was treading on thin ice after hearing that response, but I plowed ahead. "Aren't you forgetting the Viceroid incident?"  
  
"Commander Packbell challenged me. I had to accept."  
  
"You didn't have to return and save Slasher."  
  
"The raptor has earned my respect. I will never allow a vanquished foe defeat a worthy adversary."  
  
I tightened the last screw on the portal frame and stepped back to take a look. Good ol' America Online; always providing the reflectors I need for the frame... My thoughts turned back to the conversation. "So you'd rather die than help the friends of your rival."  
  
"I am a machine. I do not _die_."  
  
"You cease to exist. Sounds like a good definition for death to me."  
"By then I will have fulfilled my reason for existence."  
  
I lost what patience I had left. I threw down the screwdriver I was holding and turned full force on the robot. "And just what is that, huh? Your boss is as good as dead, you're a billion light years away from home, and your only options are to trust me or risk your neck out there in my world. What reason for existence have you got left to fulfill?" I turned to the computer sitting on the desk. "Priorities _change_, Mecha. You have to learn how to change with them. Now leave me alone while I work this code."  
  
The robot glided silently out of the room.  
  
------------------------------------------------------------------*  
  
Jason and Christine were promptly dumped on a patch of grass.  
  
"You okay, Chris?"  
  
"Yeah, you?"  
  
"I'll be better when I know where we are."  
  
"That was a wild ride. I hope I don't have to do it anytime soon."  
  
"Uh oh."  
  
"What? What is it?"  
  
"Not 'what is it'. It's 'where are we'."  
  
A nearby sign read "Welcome to Hill Valley".  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"Do we know anything about where we are?"  
  
"Besides that it's an island?"  
  
"Yes, besides that."  
  
"Well, it's a freakin' WEIRD island, I can tell you that much."  
  
"Thank you, Mr. Noah Webster."  
  
"I'm sorry, Slasher, but that's all I can determine about this place. I thought I knew all there is to know about islands, but this place defies description."  
  
"That it does, Knuckles. I don't want to explore too much; we may get separated and lost."  
  
"Let me guess: that would be a bad thing."  
  
"You read my mind."  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
A black armored fist slammed down on the arm of the chair. "I don't care HOW long a cleanup effort will take, I want to find those emeralds as soon as possible! We can clean up the city when I have those emeralds in my possession!"  
  
Snively crept away from the door. He had seen and heard what had gone on in Robotnik's study on that fateful night, and he knew that the odds of seeing his uncle again were slim to none. The short assistant had no love for Chaos8 and was glad that he had been able to remain hidden during the course of the past week. He now smuggled himself out of Robotropolis to alert the Freedom Fighters of what had happened.  
When he reached Knothole, the first person to see him was Talon. Recognizing the little man from a picture, he took Snively straight in to see Sally. There he divulged the events of the past week, right up to 8's call for a massive emerald search.  
  
"We have to get to those emeralds first. Are you sure that Sonic and Slasher were both sent to unknown dimensions?"  
  
"Quite sure. I saw it happen myself."  
  
"Wonderful. I'll notify the other groups. Looks like we have a treasure hunt on our hands."  
  
"Winner take all?"  
  
"That would be funny if it weren't so blasted true."  
  
------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
The nearly lifeless body flopped on the sand. Eventually the young man came to and picked himself up. He then wandered aimlessly inland, heading in the general direction of a nearby mansion.  
  
When he reached the front door of the mansion, he knocked with all his strength (which wasn't much to start with). A blond-haired man answered. "Can I help you?"  
  
The young man looked into his eyes and pleaded, "You have to help me. I have no memory!"  
  
The man at the door turned and called inside. "Elaine?"  
  
A female voice called from an interior room. "What is it, Guybrush?"  
  
"There's someone at the door for you."  
  
------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
The Final Egg base was dark. Very dark. The lack of light didn't   
perturb the lone robot examining the interior of the base. Robo Knux had lights built into his forearms, and the thrust from his jets provided a glow to the room as well. The archived instructions on RK's hard drive had led him here, and he now headed to the docking clamp for the Egg Carrier; the third ship that had been Robotnik's mobile base until the "Chaos incident", as the doctor had referred to it. Once aboard the Egg Carrier, the robot stepped into the transporter room and used the primary preset destination.  
  
Once there, RK crossed the clearing and took the mine cart into the jungle, then abruptly switched tracks and wound up in a small cavern.  
Across the room stood a cylinder filled with liquid... and containing a body. A live body.  
  
RK pushed a button and stood back to watch the process he had just initialized work itself to fruition. "Welcome back, Doc," the robot remarked.  
  
------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"Why do these things always happen to us?" Serena wondered aloud. She and Tails had landed in a strange world that neither could recognize. Everything had a decidedly digital look to it, and the whole city looked futuristic. Neither Mobian had any idea where they were, so they decided to look around, hoping to gather some info as to where they were.  
  
As they headed for the center of town, a figure on a zipboard slowly followed the pair.  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------------*  
  
I was halfway through recoding the Dimensionalizer program when I felt a slight breeze on the back of my neck. I looked behind me to observe a vortex opening up in the portal frame. I did a double take at the computer screen, then back at the vortex. I knew in a split second what was going on. And I knew that it was bad.  
  
Very bad.  
  
"MECHA!" I screamed, partially out of fear. "GET YOUR SHINY METAL BUTT IN HERE _NOW_!!!"  
  
The robot seemed to be glowering at me as he came in. "What is the sudden..." He trailed off when he noticed the unnatural whirlpool in the far wall. "...emergency," he finished, summing up what we were facing.  
  
"Something must be happening to the fabric of the continuum," I conjectured aloud. "Something's caused the energy of transdimensional space to twist out of its normal state, causing this vortex. I wonder if it's affecting any other dimensions..."  
  
----------------------------------------------------------------*  
  
Slasher looked up in the sky at that moment and observed a dark spot in the sky.  
  
"Knux, find some cover, NOW."  
  
"Why, what's up?" the echidna inquired.  
  
"We've got problems."  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Sonic sat up, spitting the sand out of his mouth. "Ugh, wonderful landing THAT was..." he complained, brushing himself off. He looked up into the night sky and wondered where he was... for all of a fraction of a second. Then he saw the huge whirlpool floating in midair, blocking the view of the stars. The hedgehog stared at the vortex for a moment before offering his opinion to no one in particular.  
  
"This is bad."  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------------  
  
The city of Mainframe was experiencing a vortex of their own. Fortunately, everyone was running for cover. Unfortunately, they were running for all the wrong reasons.  
  
The city leaders had gathered inside the principal office to work out a strategy of what to do...  
  
"Phong, if this IS the Web, I'm the best chance we have of stopping it."  
  
"I don't think this is the Web, Bob. If it was, don't you think we'd have creatures swarming all over the place by now?"  
  
"Dot has a good point. We should wait until we know what this is we are dealing with."  
  
As Phong was finishing that last sentence, Matrix walked into the room. "I think I have a good idea," he replied, holding Serena and Tails by the backs of their jackets.  
  
"Put us down, you big bully!" Serena yelled at her captor. Both Mobians squirmed to free themselves, but neither was successful.  
  
Bob looked at Matrix with a skeptical look on his face. "You think these two caused that vortex?"  
  
"It's possible. Look at them; they haven't got any icons, and they don't look like any sprites I've ever seen."  
  
Andraia came in behind him and updated the group on the situation outside. "That vortex is getting larger in size every nanosecond. It won't be long before it envelops the entire system!"  
  
Web Surfer looked over at the rest of the group from his position analyzing the portal. "That there ain't no Web portal, mates. That's something beyond my knowledge base."  
  
Bob looked at the two Mobians. "Do either of you know what's going on?"  
Tails spoke up, though slowly and with some doubt evident in his voice. "It might have to do with how we got here, and if what you're saying is true..."  
  
"We're all in big trouble," Serena finished for him.  
  
--------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Elaine came to the door of the mansion, introducing herself as she did so. "What can I do for you?"  
  
The young man at the door merely stood there for a second before saying, "I-I don't know who I am. I just woke up on the beach without any memory..."  
  
Guybrush waved the youth off. "Ah, don't worry about it; the grog will wear off in a few hours."  
  
"Guybrush!" his wife reprimanded. "This man doesn't remember anything about his life. Have a little sympathy, why don't you?"  
  
"Sorry, Elaine."  
  
"Do you even remember your name?" Elaine inquired, turning to the young man.  
  
"I think... I don't know... R-Rob? Th-that's all I can remember..."  
  
"It's a start. There's a guest room upstairs; you can spend the night there."  
  
"Thank you." Rob made his way to the bedroom and was out before his head hit the pillow.  
  
Elaine turned her gaze on Guybrush. "Guybrush, I need you to help Rob out while he's staying with us. Tomorrow, I need you to teach him some skills. Swordfighting, ship sailing, anything you can think of. But NO INSULTS."  
  
"Aw, but that takes all the fun out of it..."  
  
"Guybrush, the poor boy has amnesia! You want to add a lost limb to the list?"  
  
"Hey, nice alliteration."  
  
"Guybrush!"  
  
"Right. Teach Rob. Got it."  
  
As the couple closed the door and went back inside, the swirling vortex in the sky went unnoticed.  
  
------------------------------------------------------------*  
  
Mecha and I stared at the vortex for a moment. Without saying a word, we both jumped in.  
  
I immediately began flailing about, looking for some way to stop this sick joke of a dimensional tunnel. From what little I saw of Mecha, I could tell he was having no problems maintaining his equilibrium. I shut my eyes to counter the dizziness and focused on what I had to do. I had to find an opening and get myself out of this demented gyroscope!  
Suddenly I was flung out of the maelstrom and was freefalling over a digital city. Using the Gravity Stone I righted myself and landed slowly on my feet. The Mainframe street felt good after that wild ride through the dimensional storm. Mecha floated down to meet me.  
  
"I'm surprised you decided to join me. Didn't think you cared."  
  
"You are my only hope of returning to Mobius. I must protect my ticket home."  
  
Suddenly the two of us were surrounded by police vehicles and ordered to raise our hands. Mecha folded his arms in defiance.  
  
"Mecha," I muttered to him, raising my hands above my head, "do what they say."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because if you don't, you'll never get home." The robot reluctantly raised his hands.  
  
"I hope you know what you are doing..."  
  
"Relax," I replied, "I've got connections."  
  
An officer binome approached the two of us. "Where did you two come from?"  
  
"We came from outside the Net. I need to talk to Bob. Immediately," I replied urgently.  
  
"Outside the Net?" the officer repeated, raising his single eyebrow in skepticism. "How is that possible?"  
  
"I realize it may sound strange, but that up there," I told him, pointing upward at the ever-growing vortex, "is an interdimensional storm. If I don't get help soon all of Mainframe will be destroyed."  
  
The officers all looked at each other in shock as another voice signaled the presence of a newcomer. "He's right." I looked up and saw two figures on zipboards approaching from the direction of the principal office. One looked as if he'd had a hard life, with a cybernetic eye, five o'clock shadow, and a general biker look. The other reminded me of Andraia, though neither one of them looked familiar to me.  
  
The biker dude looked me over. "Who are you?"  
  
"Who wants to know?"  
  
"Name's Matrix. Haven't seen you around here before. Though you do look familiar..."  
  
The name hit like a lightning bolt. Was this guy Enzo...?  
  
"Maybe this will refresh your memory," I replied, holding up an icon I'd generated on the spot. The Emerald on the icon was green, as I'd used in previous visits to Mainframe in the Virtualizer.  
  
"Looks familiar..." Matrix's partner interjected. "Ah, now I remember! Matrix, don't you remember Ryan?"  
  
"Andraia?" I guessed, and the sprite nodded in reply. "Last time I saw you was before the big war," she continued. "A lot has changed around here..."  
  
"Including some of us," Matrix finished. "Wait till you see Hexadecimal; she'll get a kick out of seeing you."  
  
"Oh joy," I replied. "Any chance of seing Bob now? We've got to hurry..."  
  
"Sure, no problem... But, uh, who's the other guy?"  
"His name's Mecha. I expect him to be treated the same as you'd treat me."  
  
I glanced over at the robot, who seemed thoroughly surprised that I hadn't requested him to be thrown in jail, or worse.  
  
"I think we can arrange that. Need zipboards?"  
  
"Nah, I've got some new tricks, and he can fly anyway. Let's get moving; we haven't got much time..."  
  
----------------------------------------------------------*  
  
"Great Scott!"  
  
Christine and Jason stood at the front door of one Dr. Emmett Brown, who at that moment had been just about to sit down to lunch with his family. The pair had been directed to the inventor by Marty McFly, whom they'd run into in a local cafe. Marty now stood behind the two as they explained their predicament to the temporal scientist.  
  
"I agree, Doc, this is heavy. What do we do now?"  
  
"This... this is unbelievable... That the time-space continuum could fall apart from such careless application... It's unthinkable!"  
  
"I sincerely hope you're not accusing our friend, Dr. Brown," Christine admonished. "He's been extremely careful with the Dimensionalizer. It's our enemies that have misused it."  
  
"Nononononono, I'm not accusing anyone! I'm just flabbergasted at how fragile the continuum really is! I knew that changing history was dangerous, but I never heard of a trans-dimensional storm before!" The white-haired inventor paced back and forth in the entryway as he spoke. "Do you know of any way to dissipate the energy?"  
  
"Hard to say, really," Jason replied. "When we built the crazy thing we didn't even realize that such a thing was possible."  
  
"That's preposterous! How can you create a device and not take into account all possible disasters that could occur?"  
  
"Uh, Doc?" Marty broke in. "DeLorean?"  
  
"Yes, yes, of course, I know all about that. So the two of you are here by accident?"  
  
"Essentially, yes."  
  
"And that vortex could tear the whole continuum apart."  
  
"Yeah, pretty much."  
  
"Great Scott!"  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
"Nice library."  
  
"Well, I figured we might as well wait here as anywhere. Too bad most of these books are burned... Well this is interesting..."  
  
"What's that?" Slasher inquired.  
  
"Most of these books are pretty descriptive. This book talks about some barren wasteland with microphones in strategic places..."  
  
"How about this one: four islands, a central one which links to three others by rotation. Whoever wrote these was a pretty wild author."  
  
"I wonder if this place has anything to do with the worlds described in these books..."  
  
"That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think?"  
  
"Well, you never know... Stranger things have happened."  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
Sonic wandered around the local town, surprised that no one gave him a second thought. It seemed that the locals were used to seeing strange, out-of-the-ordinary sights around here. The blue hedgehog stopped to watch a pair of buccaneers practice their swordplay in the streets of Melee Town.  
  
Neither one of the pirates noticed the hedgehog at first, as they both were too busy with their battle. Both of them were into it viciously; swiping, dodging, and clashing.  
  
"Nobody's ever drawn blood from me and nobody ever will!" Guybrush spat out.  
  
"You run THAT fast?" Rob shot back. Guybrush backstepped and Rob slashed through the air where Guybrush had just been.  
  
"You fight like a dairy farmer!" Rob yelled, cutting the air between them.  
  
"How appropriate. You fight like a cow," Guybrush replied calmly. Rob fell back a few steps.  
  
"My tongue is sharper than any sword!" Guybrush jabbed.  
  
"Uhhh... Hey, you never taught me that one!" Rob complained. Guybrush swiped Rob's blade out of his hand. The blade embedded itself in the ground six inches from Sonic's feet. "HEY!" Sonic objected. "Watch it!"  
  
"Sorry," the two swashbucklers replied without looking. "You're getting pretty good," Guybrush told the younger swordsman.  
  
"Yeah, but you haven't told me everything. You never did teach me that last insult you pulled on me." Rob walked over to the sword stuck in the ground and pulled it free.  
  
"I just remembered that one from when I last fought Carla. You ought to try going against her sometime. You already know all the right comebacks; you just have to know which comebacks to use with her insults." Guybrush turned to Sonic. "Sorry about that. You okay?"  
  
The pirate's polite manner threw the hedgehog for a loop. All pirates he had ever heard of were total jerks, caring only for treasure and glory. What dimension had he landed in? "I'm fine," Sonic offered. "You guys are pretty good, but I didn't realize that such good friends could insult each other like that."  
  
Rob laughed. "Oh, that? We don't take it seriously, it's just a sport with us. By the way, what's your name?"  
  
"Name's Sonic. Sonic Hedgehog."  
  
Rob's eyes disfocused for a moment as he zoned out. He saw a huge, futuristic city, dark with shadows and smog. He saw a large man sitting in a throne as a dictator, overlooking the world he claimed to own...  
  
A slap on the back brought Rob back to the present. "I'm Guybrush Threepwood, and this is Rob." Rob waved a greeting.  
  
"Listen, I don't know if you guys are going to believe me, but there's a couple of things I need to tell you. I'm not from around here, and I don't think there's much time before we're all in trouble."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"See that dark spot in the sky? It won't be long before it destroys this whole dimension."  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------*  
  
"Dimension? I thought that Mainframe was a system within the Net."  
  
"It is," I replied, "but apparently the Net is a physical dimension in itself. I know it seems strange that I got here the first time through a virtual gate and now by a dimensional portal, but that's not important. What IS important is that Mainframe, and any other dimension affected by this storm, will be dust in a matter of hours if we don't DO something." I looked the guardian sprite straight in the eye and said, "That means your home, my home, and the homes of millions, maybe billions of others, will cease to exist, AS WILL WE."  
  
Bob returned the gaze. "What can we do? How do you neutralize something like this?"  
  
"If I may offer an analysis," came a voice from across the room. Every head turned to regard Mecha. A few sprites shied away from him because of his lack of an icon, but aside from that he had been treated fairly well during his time here. "It has come to my attention that we are dealing with rotational energy."  
  
"One word, Mecha: duh. It's a vortex. That's what vortices do. They rotate. What's your point?"  
  
"I will answer that by asking you a question. I have been studying your recreational computer equipment--" (I breathed a sigh of relief that he didn't say "game") "and have noticed an application of science in one of your software programs. How do you neutralize cyclonic energy in this 'Chrono Trigger' program?"  
  
A flash of inspiration. "You use a Slash attack. A linear force disrupts the rotational nature of the vortex. Mecha, you're a genius!"  
  
"What are you two talking about?" Matrix cut in.  
  
I looked around the room. "We are going to neutralize that dimensional vortex, but we need some help."  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------*  
  
"How goes the emerald search, Princess?"  
  
"We've got four of the emeralds, Snively, but unfortunately the rest of them are somewhere on the southern continent. We'll have to send some search teams down there."  
  
"Might I suggest staying away from the old Final Egg base? It's highly dangerous, and I'm not sure whether any of Dr. Robotnik's experiments are still functioning down there or not."  
  
"I'll keep that in mind."  
  
As the former assistant left, Sally turned to the window in frustration. The vortex was blocking half the view of the moon now, and it wouldn't be long before the entire dimension was torn asunder.  
  
"Sonic, where ARE you?" she whispered to the air.  
  
------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Chaos8 paced as he tried to hide his nervousness. He knew he had caused that dimensional storm, and he also knew that if the time-space continuum were torn apart, there would be no way even he could survive.  
  
For the first time in his life, Chaos8 wondered if he had done the best thing.  
  
------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"All systems are operational, Doc. You're back in business."  
  
A silhouette appeared in the doorway. But this wasn't Robotnik. This person was trimmer, leaner, and stronger. This person was perfect... perfectly synthetic.  
  
Robotnick, a clone, turned to RK and replied, "Excellent work, Robo Knux. It's time to take back Mobius.  
  
"Chaos8 may think he's evil, but he's just met his match."  
  
To Be Continued... 


	4. Eye of the Storm part 2: Reassembling th...

Legend of ChaosJedi-- Eye of the Storm, Part 2  
by Ryan Carroll  
  
The storm was building strength. I knew that there wasn't much time before the entire continuum tore apart.  
  
"Mecha, how stable can you keep yourself in that vortex?"  
  
The blue robotic clone gave me a sideways glance. "Not very stable, but enough that I can navigate through the storm."  
  
"In other words, better than I can." I turned to Tails and Serena. "You guys think you can hold on?"  
  
Tails grabbed Mecha's back, and Serena had a death grip on my neck. "Refresh my memory," the violet hedgehog cut in. "Why aren't we neutralizing the vortex first?"  
  
I turned my head partway to answer her. "We need to get everyone else out of the dimensions they're in first, then we have to enlist everyone's help in those other dimensions to close off the vortex openings that have emerged. THEN we neutralize the storm."  
  
"Oh. That makes sense. So where are we going now?"  
  
"Wherever the storm takes us," I replied, lifting off toward the vortex.  
  
----------------------------------------------------  
  
"Now this is a weird book," Knuckles commented as he sat on the dock of Myst Island by the sunken ship. Slasher had perched herself in the crow's nest of the ship, casting an occasional wary glance into the sky at that dimensional vortex, which seemed to be getting larger with each passing moment.  
  
"What about it?" the raptor asked, taking yet another glance at the vortex.  
  
"Well the words in the book are in some odd language, but there's a picture in the back of the book. This thing looks so real I feel like I could touch it and--"  
  
The echidna's words were punctuated by an abrupt silence, followed by a splash. Slasher's head whipped around to observe the book Knux had been reading sinking to the bottom of the bay, with the echidna nowhere to be found.  
  
The raptor quickly retrieved the book from the water, then attempted to look at the page Knux had been looking at. Rather than a crystal clear picture, the page showed only a box of static.  
  
The roar of jet engines caught Slasher's attention. She narrowed her eyes as she recognized the source.  
  
---------------------------------------------------  
  
"Well, I can see Slasher, but I don't see anyone else nearby-- Oh, no."  
  
"Is there a problem, CJ?"  
  
I freaked when Mecha used my pseudo-nickname. He'd never called me by name before. Shoot, I don't even know if he'd referred to me in third person before. I quickly regained my composure and responded, "I recognize this place. It's Myst Island. The library is home to several books that link to other worlds. You're not careful and you could be stuck here for a long time."  
  
"Uh, oh," Tails interjected from his perch on Mecha's back.  
  
"What?" I replied, trying to figure out what Tails was looking at.  
  
"If that's what I think is in Slasher's hands, she may be here for a long time."  
  
I zeroed in on the book the raptor was holding. "Slash! Don't touch that book!"  
  
Startled, she dropped the book on the dock as Mecha and I landed and our passengers disembarked. "Have you seen Knux?"  
  
"Have WE seen him? We just got here."  
  
"Well he was holding this book, then he was just gone."  
  
Fearing the worst, I picked up the book, which was still dripping wet. Flipping to the back, I saw that the linking image had dissolved into static. Peeling some of the other pages apart, I saw that the sea water the book had been dumped into had totally obliterated the ink that had forged the link. "Lovely," I muttered.  
  
"You know what happened to him?"  
  
"The good news is, yes, I know what happened to him. The bad news is that I don't know if we can get him back."  
  
----------------------------------------------------  
  
I gathered what clues I could from the ruined linking book. The cover featured waves of water. That didn't help much, since both the Stoneship and Mechanical ages were both surrounded by water. I was betting on Stoneship, which didn't make me feel any better about going after Knux. I had played Myst on my PC, but I'd never managed to complete Stoneship. I guess I could also include Channelwood in the water category...  
  
I heard footsteps approaching and looked to see Mecha entering the library where I had set up my research. "What is it?" I asked the robot.  
  
"I would like to know when we are going to leave this place. The isolation is starting to wear on my circuits."  
  
"Sorry, Mecha, but I'm not leaving until I can rescue Knux."  
  
"Then allow me to accompany the raptor and the others to search for the remaining missing persons. I have no use here, and the salt water is beginning to rust my joints."  
  
I sighed. Mecha had a good point. "All right, but be careful. I'd hate for you to wind up in a bad situation just because I couldn't watch you."  
  
The red eyes studied me for a second. "Why do you take responsibility for me like this? I have only refrained from harming you because I need to return to Mobius."  
  
"Because you've got potential, Mecha. You could be one of the good guys. ...Ah, why am I even trying? You've probably heard all the arguments before."  
  
"Actually... I have not." With that Mecha paced out of the room. Soon after I could hear the echoes of his jets as he took off towards the vortex...  
  
Echoes. Sound waves. Microphones. I leaped for the bookshelf and began tearing through it, hoping to come across the book I was looking for. I found the Selenitic journal, but there was no linking book. Since I knew that there were two linking books for each age, the remaining one must be in the proper place...  
  
Flipping through the journal again, I made notes of the proper sequence of keys, then bolted for the spaceship on the northwest corner of the island, stopping only to flip the power switch that ran electricity to the equipment inside.  
  
I skidded to a halt in front of the organ. After pressing the proper combination of keys and listening carefully to the pitch each key made, I turned and input those frequencies into the console behind me.  
  
Success! The image of a book faded into view on the small screen above the console. I reached out to touch the book...  
  
--------------------------------------------------------  
  
"We really appreciate this, Dr. Brown," Christine told the inventor as she and Jason got into the DeLorean.  
  
"It's nothing, really. You need it more than I do. And please, call me Doc."  
  
"Well, Doc, we really appreciate this. We'll try to bring the car back in good shape."  
  
"If I were you I wouldn't bother with trying to bring it back. Just be careful you don't activate the time circuits accidentally!"  
  
As the car took off towards the portal, Marty turned to Doc. "Are you sure that was such a good idea? I mean, what if they try to change history?"  
  
"I have a feeling they won't bother with something as minute as that, considering what they're facing."  
  
--------------------------------------------------------  
  
Knuckles had no idea where the heck he was, but he didn't like it one bit.  
  
The thick fog settled oppresively over the barren wasteland, only adding to the dismal mood the echidna was in. He had no idea how he was going to get home, and he didn't know if he would ever see his friends again.  
  
He thought of Sonic's cocksure attitude, of Tails' contagious laugh, of Talon's habit of calling him "sir", of Ryan's voice...  
  
Ryan's voice? Was his mind playing tricks on him? He waited silently, wishing his heart and lungs would quiet down so he could hear.  
  
--------------------------------------------------------  
  
"Knuckles! Hey, ya big lug, if you can hear me shout back already!"  
  
My biggest fear was that the echidna had figured out the point of the microphones and had already managed to reach the railcar, in which case I'd never catch up with him. Suddenly, through the thick fog, a voice called, "Ryan? Is that you?"  
  
"Of course, it's me! Who else would be crazy enough to come after you? Hey, keep talking so I can find you!"  
  
Knuckles talked for a good five minutes while I discerned his location to the point where I could see him through the cloudbank that had settled over the plain.  
  
"Now what?" he asked as I drifted to him out of the fog.  
  
"Now we get out of here. Come on, I know the way to the linking book..."  
  
--------------------------------------------------------  
  
Despite the swirling winds, Slasher managed to maintain her equilibrium in the storm quite well. Mecha's internal gyroscope had finally gotten used the constantly shifting forces of the rip, and was holding his own against the storm. Tails and Serena clung to the raptor's back as tightly as was physically possible. All seemed to be going well...  
  
That's when the DeLorean came careening out of a portal, heading directly for the party.  
  
Jason saw them first and swerved wildly, yanking the steering wheel around in an attempt to get clear. Chris, startled by the abrupt change in direction, screamed. The scream alerted Slasher, whose reflexes acted, jerking her away from the oncoming car. Tails lost his grip on Slasher and slipped off. Mecha noticed and swooped in to grab the fox. Finally everyone was safely on the other side of a portal.  
  
"Brilliant driving skills, mi amigo," Chris shot at Jason, voice dripping with sarcasm.  
  
"So I've never dealt with a third dimension before while driving! Excuuuuuuse me!"  
  
"Save it for later," Slasher cut in, stepping between the two. "We've got other things to worry about. Such as where we are."  
  
"Hey, what's that sound?" Serena added.  
  
Everyone stopped and listened. A faint scream could be heard...  
  
"... ... ... ...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--OOMPH!"  
  
------------------------------------------------------  
  
The pain was nearly unbearable. For once in my life I sympathized with that cartoon coyote...  
  
"Ryan! You ok?"  
  
No, I wasn't ok. What a stupid question to ask. Still face down in the sand, I felt my hand give the thumbs-up signal. I was going to have to have a nice talk with my subconscious when this was over.  
  
I felt more than heard Knux land nearby. Slasher asked what had happened, so Knux explained that after getting out of Myst, we'd gotten zapped by an electrical discharge in the storm. My brain had shorted out to the point that I didn't have the mental capacity to activate my Gravity Stone. Hence, cartoon-like impact. I ever so slowly pulled myself out of the sand pit I'd created.  
  
"Ouch," I muttered before passing out.  
  
-----------------------------------------------------  
  
Sally, now in possession of six of the seven Chaos Emeralds, decided to check up on Chaos8's progress. Nicole patched into the Robotropolis computer, only to get kicked out immediately.  
  
"Unable to connect to the network, Sally."  
  
"Huh? Why?"  
  
"The mainframe is under emergency lockdown. Robotropolis is under attack."  
  
"WHAT? By whom?"  
  
"Robotnik."  
  
-----------------------------------------------------  
  
Sonic stared up at the hole in the sky. He thought he had seen some figures fall out of it earlier that day, but had since chalked it up to hallucination. No one even knew he was here. Who would even know to look here?  
  
And what about this Rob guy? He seemed so familiar, and yet Sonic couldn't place the memory anywhere. It was almost as if he'd met the guy on several occasions, but he just couldn't remember...  
  
Sonic drifted to sleep, unaware of the battle for destiny going on ever so close to home, not to mention the search party less than two miles away... ...  
  
  
  
To Be Continued... 


	5. Evolution

Legend of ChaosJedi-- Evolution  
by Ryan Carroll  
  
********************  
Author's note: I designed things so that Netraptor's "Heart of a Chao" takes place between "Eye of the Storm" and "Evolution". Keep in mind that the exact events happen somewhat differently in my world; specifically, the chao in her story are the ones rescued from the factories in "Greater of Two Evils". Also, the chao continue to reside with the residents of Knothole after the war with the biotics.  
********************  
  
College. A time of change. A time of growth. A time of freedom.  
  
Yeah, right. Only if your concept of freedom is being mentally chained to a desk writing three separate term papers all due on the same day.  
  
Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed college... most of the time. I just didn't like the fact that all my professors had conspired to make three separate papers due on the same day. And to make matters worse, they all had to do with topics I HATED. And when I say that I hate something, it means I hate it with a PASSION.  
  
The events I've outlined previously all happened near the beginning of the semester, and it was almost Winter Break. To be totally honest, I have NEVER, even in my high school years, wanted so much to be done with a semester. I banged out the last paragraph of my last paper, printed, collated, and stapled all three papers; triple-checked to make sure I'd put the right pages in the right groups and in the correct order; and collapsed on my bed.  
  
Then the phone rang. I wanted to shoot something.  
  
I picked up the handset and recognized Christine's voice. She and I had been nearly inseparable all semester, to hear my roommate tell it. I wouldn't go as far as to say that, but I did agree that we had seen an awful lot of each other over the past several weeks. I don't know if it was backlash from her time with Jason or anything having to do with the prophecy concering that pendant, but either way I was grateful to have someone to hang out with who knew exactly what I was talking about when I alluded to Mobius. It became "our little joke", and we spent many a meal comparing stories of our adventures in other dimensions.  
  
"Hey, Ryan, it's me. You got those papers finished?"  
  
Interestingly enough, the classes I had papers due in were the classes Chris and I had in common; go figure. "Yeah, just finished a few seconds ago. You?"  
  
"I was done about an hour ago. You want to go for a walk?"  
  
"At two in the morning?"  
  
"Oh, come on, you can sleep tomorrow when all your papers are turned in. Besides, I saw how much caffeine you drank tonight. After three glasses of Jolt you have GOT to still be wired."  
  
"You got a point. I'll be there in a few minutes. Better wear a jogging suit; it's cold out there, even in the desert."  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"Brrr, you were right, it IS cold out here."  
  
"I told you so. You were right as well, though; a brisk walk is just what I needed. Hey, what's that?"  
  
"What's what?"  
  
I had stopped and bent down to inspect a pair of objects half-hidden under a bush. "What the-- these are eggs!"  
  
"Better leave them alone. Mama Bird won't be happy if you mess with them."  
  
"These aren't just eggs. Unless an ostrich is loose from the Phoenix Zoo, these are Chao eggs! Two of them!"  
  
"Huh? I thought that Chao only existed in Mobius."  
  
"To the best of my knowledge they didn't even exist in Mobius until the world collision. That was over a year ago... Who knows how long these eggs have been here!"  
  
"Should we take them with us?"  
  
"Most definitely. And I'm getting Slasher on the D-com as soon as I get back to ask about what to do with them."  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"The one with orange spots you should keep in the sun, and the green one needs to be kept in a cool, dry place until they hatch."  
  
"You sound like an expert. What's happened on Mobius since I've been away?"  
  
She sounded so nonchalant about it that I didn't quite catch the drift of it for a second: "A war."  
  
"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that."  
  
"We've spent the last few months fighting a war."  
  
"Oh, don't tell me Chaos8 came back," I groaned.  
  
"No, worse."  
  
"Worse," I repeated. "What could be worse than Chaos8?"  
  
"Oh, quite a bit, apparently. I'll tell you all about it when you come. Judging from what you told me, those Chao might hatch tomorrow. If you don't want to have to raise both of them, I suggest you let Christine have one of them. They imprint, and I think it would be wise, not to mention interesting, if you each had one."  
  
"Imprint, huh? I wonder if I'll let Chris know that or not..."  
  
Slasher caught the mischievous tone of my voice. "You'd better tell her that before her Chao freaks her out. I'll tell you more about raising them when you come."  
  
I heard a voice in the background. "Is that CJ?"  
  
"Hey, Knux, good to hear from you!"  
  
"Hey, Ryan," the echidna replied, reverting to using my normal name, "I just thought you should know that that piece of the Master Emerald you found? It was only half of what was missing. Turns out the other half was dredged from the ocean floor by Mecha and RK to power a particularly nasty piece of machinery. Tell ya all about it when you come by day after tomorrow."  
  
It seemed that I was going to be learning quite a bit in the next few days.  
  
------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Sure enough, when I got back to my room from turning in my papers, the egg was just starting to hatch. I watched the process with interest, and marveled at the little creature that emerged from its egg. As it looked at me, I could almost swear I saw determination in the little Chao's eyes, determination to live, determination to be a fitting sidekick to me.  
  
Determination to eat. I watched as he started munching on a plant I had sitting in the window.   
  
"I don't think you'll like that very much," I told the little being, offering it some oranges I had bought on the way back to the room, aware that the little one would be hungry after an endeavor such as hatching. I peeled one and set it in front of the Chao. I settled down to watching the little creature go to town on the fruit while I tried to come up with a good name for the little one. The determination I'd seen in his eyes made me think that a Jedi name would be fitting, but all the ones I could think of were either too common or too off the wall. I thought maybe CJ would work, but people might think I was conceited.  
  
After debating several names, I was startled by the Chao leaping into my lap.  
  
I had been sitting a good ten feet from the window. I noticed the drawstring from the shade swinging wildly. I looked at the cord, then at the Chao. I had been on the wrong track by looking for a Jedi name. "All right, Indy. You wanted my attention; what is it?"  
  
As if in reply, the Chao snuggled into my arms.  
  
I wondered how Chris was doing.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------*  
  
Christine had the same fortunate timing as Ryan, as she had walked into her room just as the hatching process had begun. Unlike Ryan, she began encouraging her Chao to hatch. As a result, the eggshell practically exploded, leaving a Chao in its place.  
  
"Good job," Christine exulted, and she went immediately to work washing off an apple. When she offered it to the Chao, the little creature immediately began devouring the fruit. "Boy, you must be hungry," she commented, and she sat down to think of a name. From what Slasher had mentioned, this one must be a female, so what were some good girls' names...?  
  
By this time the Chao had polished off the apple and had discovered the computer. Almost as if she had worked with a laptop PC in her egg, she began clicking around the Internet like a pro.  
Christine laughed. "You little pixel-crazy Chao!" She paused, considering... "Hey, that's what your name will be: Pixel!" Pixel smiled at Christine and went back to work on surfing the Net.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------*  
  
Indy and Pixel met for the first time that afternoon. I had received more extensive instructions from Slasher when I called to inform her that we had acheived successful hatching. The instructions went along the lines of "make sure the rest of the Chao meet them, but watch out for Chimera, he's a bit rough". I remembered that later while rubbing my hand. "At least I'm not bleeding," I muttered, glaring at the red Chao. Chimera favored me with a toothy smile and strutted off.  
  
"A bit rough?" I repeated to Slasher.  
  
"Okay, so I understated. I told him to take it easy on you guys. You should see what he's done to people he's familiar with."  
  
"Something tells me I don't want to know. Seems Indy and Pixel had a good time in the dimensional tunnel."  
  
"I take it the storm's died down by now?"  
  
"With no tunnels to fuel it for the past few months, the energy's dissipated. No longer a factor in travel."  
  
"Well that's good. Have you met the rest of the Chao yet?"  
  
"Yeah, we introduced our two to the rest of the group a little earlier. What do you think of this, huh? A couple of Chao eggs sitting in the middle of Arizona and we just 'happen' to come across them?"  
  
"It does seem rather convenient. Well, I'm kinda interested in how your two turn out after they otiae. That's sort of a transition into their grown form. I don't think they'll be able to use any of the Chaos Emeralds; ours have gotten kind of attached to them."  
  
"I wonder... I absorbed the Element Stones; I wonder if I can produce the stones so that the Chao can use them."  
  
"It's funny, they've all been saying they have the wrong emeralds. I wonder if that means they have the RIGHT ones. You think the Element Stones would give them new abilities?"  
  
"It's possible." I smiled.  
  
"You're not thinking of testing that theory, are you? What if you lose your powers by creating the gems?"  
  
"I absorbed the stones and their essences. By creating a new stone I'll just be duplicating the power of the original."  
  
"Well, that makes sense. I say let's go test that theory," Slasher replied, grinning.  
Just then Rob and Christine ran up. "Indy and Pixel just went into some deep sleep! Then this cocoon formed around them; are they all right?"  
  
Well, I could see that Christine was bonding with her Chao just fine. I tended to distance myself a little bit from Indy; it was too much like raising a kid. I could tell that Christine had that natural mothering instinct.  
  
"That's odd." Slasher's voice broke into my thoughts. "Normally it takes a few weeks for them to otiae. The growth of your Chao seems to have been accelerated exponentially!"  
  
"I'm kinda curious to see what Indy looks like when he gets done. Check this out," I added, producing a fedora, shrunk to miniature size. "I'd like to see if it fits him."  
  
I was met with amused stares from all sides.  
  
"What?"  
  
------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"Well, if the life cycle of these two has been accelerated to the point that they otiaed hours after hatching, the transformation should only take a couple of minutes."  
  
"I wonder if naming them has any effect on their appearance. I'd be interested to see what Pixel looks like if that made any difference."  
  
"Hey, Indy's cocoon is stirring!" one of the Chao, probably Velocity, announced. We all turned our attention to the cocoon, now visibly rocking back and forth. Several cracks appeared, and soon Indy was free of the chrysalis. And boy did he look like an Indy. It was almost as if he'd grown a leather jacket while in the cocoon. His appearance other than that had tended more towards growth than change, but when I placed the little fedora on his head, the picture was complete; all that was missing was the whip.  
  
"Hey, Ryan. How ya doin'?" the Chao asked me. Apparently even imprinting was accelerated; the little guy had even picked up some of my speech patterns. The two of us took a stroll out in the woods, and Indy showed me some of his abilities, such as using one hand as a whip to swing across chasms. When we got back, Pixel had emerged. I blinked for a second. That could NOT have been the same Chao! She was taller and slimmer, and looked a heck of a lot like Christine. She sported a mini-keyboard strapped to one arm and wore one of those VR headbands, which was currently pushed up out of her face. I stared at her for a second. Hacker in training, without a doubt. I was curious to see how these guys would react to Element Stones.  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------  
  
We were all in a wide open space on Floating Island, as I wasn't sure how some of these guys would react to the power of an Element Stone. I decided to divvy up the Stones to the Chao who had showed their definite element-specific abilities. I tried to think of who would get which stone...  
  
It didn't help that all the Chao were trying to tell me that they all had the wrong emeralds in the first place, and it REALLY didn't help that all the others were trying to tell me everything that their Chao could do. I finally snapped.  
  
"Everybody SHUT UP for a second! I can't hear myself THINK!"  
  
Every voice in the immediate area immediately ceased.  
  
"Thank you." I could now think logically; Pilot had exhibited lightning abilities, Chimera could breathe fire, Max shapeshifted, Velocity teleported... Some of these abilities had nothing to do with elements! Now what to do? Let's see, I had to give each Chao the right stone... "Hey, everybody," I called to the seven veteran Chao, "I need you guys to line up over here for a minute."  
  
They did so, and I now had a visual aid. I produced the Element Stones I had generated that morning and placed them in a row. Lightning was Pilot, so I placed that stone in front of her, and I did the same with the Fire Stone in front of Chimera, being careful to stay out of reach of those teeth. Max was most comfortable in water, so I placed the Water Stone in front of him.  
"Ryan, is this going to take a while?" Christine inquired. "I can head back to Earth and order some pizzas."  
  
"Yeah, why don't you do that?" I replied. "Oh, but before you go, let Pixel borrow the Amber."  
  
"You think she can do anything with it?"  
  
"Won't hurt to try, will it? I have a feeling she'll respond to it more than Indy will. I'm trying to figure how to get Indy to reform at the same time I'm working this puzzle out."  
  
"Okay, if you think it'll work. What toppings you guys want on the pizza?"  
  
My palm slapped my forehead before the question was halfway out of her mouth, as I knew what was to come. Sure enough, voices were raised asking for certain toppings and the absence of others.  
Christine, realizing the tumult she'd created, merely hung her pendant around Pixel's neck and said, "Tell you what, I'll get Extra-Large Super Supremes and you all can pick off what you don't like."  
  
Everyone seemed to agree on that, so Chris turned and headed for the portal. After a few steps, she turned back. "What do you--"  
  
"Two 3-liter bottles of Dr. Pepper and two of Mountain Dew."  
  
"Great, thanks."  
  
I turned back to the puzzle of the elements.  
  
--------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Two hours later the pizza was gone and so far the only thing that had worked was Pixel using the Xiro stone to evolve. She freaked me out by tapping me on the shoulder. I turned around to find a copy of Christine, albeit a copy that included all kinds of wearable computer equipment. The resemblance to Christine and not a walking PC was what had freaked me out, especially when I got the two standing side by side later after the real Chris had returned with the pizzas.  
  
"That," I commented, "is one freaky resemblance."  
  
Knux pulled out a mirror for the two to look at to see the similarity for themselves while I went back to work on the element problem. I was still trying to figure out the gravity, rock, air, and light stones. A thought hit me just then: why mess around with this? Why not just try it out and see what happens? I tossed the Rock Stone to Zinc on impulse, saying, "Hey, Zinc, try this one and see if it works."  
  
"Will it work if I'm not in Ultimate form?"  
  
"Heck, with the power that baby's putting out it shouldn't matter what form you're in. Go ahead, see if it works."  
  
The metallic Chao popped the gem in his mouth and bit down...  
  
The flash was dazzling, but not blinding. As a result I saw the whole transformation process take place. Zinc went from his small form, through his large form, through Ultimate, and even beyond that. I wanted to glance at Zephyer to see if she was watching, but I didn't dare look away from the transformation.  
  
The giant android echidna didn't melt away, but was rather augmented by a larger body with powerful arms, huge fists, and better armor on the torso. I didn't doubt that one tap of a finger could set off seismographs a mile away.  
  
Looks like random selection just might work. Max, Pilot, and Chimera all wanted to try their stones right away, but I told them to hold off; one huge creature at a time was all I needed at the moment, and, I reminded them, I still had three more emeralds to give out.  
  
Chimera complained, as I expected he would, and the words came as if I had scripted it beforehand, right down to the whiny voice: "But you let Zinc use his!"  
  
"That," I chided, "was a test. Now quit complaining or I'll give the Fire Stone to Indy." The Chao grumbled something, but said no more.  
  
I considered again: who would be most likely to use these last three elements? Again on impulse, I lightly kicked the Light Stone over to Elleno. "Hold off on it, but you try this one." The little Chao nodded, and I went back to the last two. I muttered to myself for the better half of a minute: "Chalcon and Velocity, gravity and air, Chalcon and Velocity, gravity and air... Ahhh, heck with it." I pulled out a coin and flipped it. "Chalcon, gravity; Velocity, air."  
  
I turned to see several quizzical looks aimed in my direction.  
  
"What?"  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------  
  
I'm not sure why I didn't think to have all of them "go Mega", as the process became known as,   
all at once right away. Maybe it was because I didn't know about the eighth Element Stone at the time. Unlike the eighth Chaos Emerald, the eighth Element Stone wasn't a talisman of evil. As it was, I didn't find out about it until later that night. Chris and Pixel had gone back to "their" dorm room, as they put it, but Indy had expressed a desire to camp out for one night on Floating Island. I was happy to oblige, and Indy and I talked half the night, with Knux present for half the conversation.  
  
"Ryan?"  
  
"Yeah, Indy?"  
  
"How come I haven't got a stone like all the rest?"  
  
"Well, there just aren't enough emeralds to go around. I'm sorry, little guy, but that's just how things turned out. We all wanted to see how the Element Stones would work on the Chao who already knew how to use them. Pixel got the Xiro stone because she was Christine's Chao, and the stone just wouldn't have worked if you had tried to use it."  
  
"Well what about the others saying they all had the wrong emeralds? What's up with that?"  
  
"If every single one of them thinks they've got the wrong emerald, then it must mean they have the RIGHT ones. They just think they have the wrong emeralds because they have abilities that they didn't know about before. There's nothing mismatched about those guys."  
  
Knuckles bolted off at this point, and we both were kinda startled by the suddenness of it all.   
We kept talking though, figuring Knux had just remembered something he had to do.  
  
Indy suddenly changed the subject as Knux disappeared. "You like Chris, don't you?"  
  
I was a bit taken aback by the sudden shift in topic, as well as the personal nature of the question. "Well, uh, yeah."  
  
"How did you know when she liked you back?"  
  
Whoa. I was totally unprepared for THAT question. "Well, uh, I, uh... Why do you ask?" Did my voice crack when I said that?  
  
"'Cause I want to know if Pixel likes me."  
  
Now THAT would be interesting. "I-I don't really know. I guess--"  
  
Just then Knux came flying back to the campsite, book in hand. I was grateful for the postponement of the other conversation; the echidna seemed really excited about something. "Hey, Knux, what's up?"  
  
"I just found this: According to this, the Element Stones all have to be wielded together at the same time, and they'll create a _new_ Element Stone, the Creation Stone. If my guess is right, it'll give Indy the ability to exist in any phase, from small to Mega, any time he wants!"  
  
"Hey, cool! You mean I'll actually get my own stone?"  
  
"Sounds like it," I replied. Looking at Knux, I asked, "What about the Xiro stone? Is large the best Pixel can hope for?"  
  
"Hold on, let me check... Why do you ask, just out of curiosity?"  
  
"Well I think it would be kind of unfair if Indy could suddenly go to Mega and Pixel's stuck at two phases below that."  
  
"Good point. You know, we haven't heard from Robotnick in a while. I wonder what's he's up to."  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------*  
  
Christine and Pixel were having their own late-night conversation. "Chris, when did you realize that you liked Ryan?"  
  
Unlike her partner, Christine wasn't at all fazed by the question. "I don't know; I guess it started back before I'd met him. Apparently he went back in time to save my life. When he got back, I kinda got dragged into the whole dimension-jumping thing. I don't know what happened, but when he gave me this pendant, something came over me, something that said, 'This is right. This is what was meant for you.' I guess it sounds kinda crazy..."  
  
"Not really. I've been kinda wondering whether Indy likes me."  
  
That admission DID surprise Christine. "Well, I imagine he's pretty jealous of you right now, since he's stuck in his small form and you can actually evolve."  
  
"Yeah, but he'll find a way eventually. I can tell."  
  
"What did you do, hack into a history book in the future?" the human replied, half-joking.  
  
"No, but Indy doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who'd just give up on something."  
  
"That's funny I was thinking the same thing about Ryan." The pair shared a laugh, but Pixel soon turned serious.  
  
"Christine?"  
  
"Yeah, Pix?"  
  
"Who's Chaos8?"  
  
--------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Rob sorted through the files in the community hut and sighed. He knew that, as a human, he was extremely out of place here in Knothole, but for some reason he found it difficult to live anywhere else. Who was he in reality, anyway? The last thing he could remember was washing up on the shores of Melee Island, much like Guybrush Threepwood had said he had several years before, but Rob felt no connection to the Tri-Island Area. Here on Mobius, he felt a connection, one inexplicable, but existing nonetheless.  
  
He came across a paperclipped stack of notebook paper, and leafed through it. This appeared to be a journal of some sort, but why wasn't it in a bound book? The confused teen scanned a couple of pages.  
  
"I suspect that the impossible has occured: When Chaos8 took over Robotnik's body, Robotnik's consiousness was transferred to Chaos8's body, giving him the appearance of a teenager. If the Interweb does its job (as I suspect it will) the original Robotnik will never remember his hatred for Sonic, his evil deeds, or his clone."  
  
Another passage: "Is it possible that Rob is Robotnik? This innocent amnesiac doesn't seem like he could possibly be the same person as the evil doctor... And besides, how did he manage to wind up in this dimension, anyway? I don't get it; the only possibility I can think of is that the Interweb reaches out beyond the Mobius dimension, like an ever-spreading virus."  
  
Rob considered the words on the pages in front of him. Could he be the same monster he now fought against? How could that be possible? Just because he couldn't remember his life before washing ashore didn't make him an evil mastermind! ...But, what if it was true?  
  
Rob thought back to the first time he'd faced Metal Sonic. He'd wondered who would build a robot copy of someone just to try to destroy the original. A fragmented memory rematerialized: Robotnik taking off in the Death Egg. From Robotnik's perspective...  
  
Rob dropped the stack of papers and ran out of the hut full tilt, nearly colliding with Slasher in the process. "What's wrong, Rob?"  
  
"I can't be the same person as that monster! There's no way I'm the original Robotnik! Heck, I LIKE Sonic, for crying out loud!"  
  
"You've been reading Ryan's journal, I see. Come here," she told him, beckoning to a table back inside the hut. Rob sat down, and looked at Slasher, hoping she would deny everything he'd read in that journal.  
  
"There's a good chance that Ryan's right."  
  
"No way. I refuse to accept that."  
  
"But that's good! If you ARE the original Robotnik, then it proves two things: one, Robotnik can be defeated, since you know all his weaknesses. Two, you're living proof that something good can become of a catastrophe."  
  
"Catastrophe?" Another fragmented memory: That last battle with Chaos8 before getting sucked into the Interweb.  
  
"Are you all right?"  
  
"No, I'm not. How could I do what I did? I've done so many horrible things..."  
  
Slasher settled down for a long talk. Rob had provided the opportunity, and it was now Slasher's responsibility to build on that opportunity.  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------*  
  
Christine and I met for lunch, having left our Chao on Christine's computer playing a copy of "Escape from Monkey Island". We discussed life in general, and specifically the two little Chao who had thrown us both for a loop the night before.  
  
"You're kidding," Christine was saying. "You mean the two might actually like each other?"  
  
"From all appearances. It makes sense, kind of... I mean, you and me, Indy and Pixel..."  
  
"So Indy actually asked you about us?"  
  
"Yeah, he caught me totally off-guard with that one. I dunno, I mean, do you really think that the two of us were meant to... you know..."  
  
"Vanquish evil and get married?"  
  
"Yeah, something like that."  
  
"You got me. All I know is that this partnership, the two of us working together for whatever reason, just feels right. I think God had this in his plan all along."  
  
As I was about to reply, my pager went off. I checked it, which prompted "You have a pager?" from Chris.  
  
"It only goes off when I have a message from Mobius. Says here that 'Rob has seen the Light. Come quickly'."  
  
"Robotnick?"  
  
"No, Rob. Ever since I let Slasher borrow my Left Behind series she's taken to calling Eggman 'Nick'. Strange, but it fits, I guess."  
  
"Uh huh. So what's that about 'seeing the Light'?"  
  
"Light is capitalized. Think that means something?"  
  
"You're kidding! Slasher got through to him?"  
  
"Slasher helped. God got through to him all right, though."  
  
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!"  
  
"Let's stop and pick up the Chao. I've got a surprise waiting for Indy."  
  
"Another emerald?"  
  
"You'll see. Come on."  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------  
  
The little group of believers was clustered around Rob's hut, listening to him tell his story as we walked up. Nearly everybody was in tears. I had a feeling that if I'd gotten here earlier, I'd have been in tears, too. Indy and Pixel were with the other Chao, so I didn't have to worry about that otherwise inevitable question.  
  
"I don't know what I was thinking. I was insane; insane with hatred, with desire for conquest. I hope that you all can forgive me for what I've done. For Mecha, for Floating Island, for Chaos, for... Robotropolis..." At this point Rob broke down. He sat there with his shoulders heaving with sobs, his eyes filling with tears that willfully came. I came up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Since God has forgiven," I said, "then so will I." Rob looked up at me, then stood and grappled me in an embrace. Almost as one the rest of the group stood and did the same. It was as if Jesus Himself had just stepped into the room; we were all praying, singing praises, or just standing in silent awe of God. Eventually we all untangled ourselves, and Rob stood facing me. "Thank you," he said. "If I hadn't read those journal entries of yours, I might never have known."  
  
"Welcome to the family, Rob."  
  
"Hey, let's go see the Chao!" he chimed. Sonic and Slasher exchanged a glance that said, "Is he safe around the Emeralds?" I gave them both a look that said, "Hey, if God really worked in his life, let's give the kid a chance to prove it!"  
  
"Sure," I told him. "After you."  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------  
  
Rob didn't go psycho when he got near the emeralds, so I figured it was safe to let him hang out for a while. I took Slasher aside and voiced some concerns.  
  
"If he remembers anything useful, it could be used against us."  
  
"You doubt his salvation?"  
  
"I don't doubt his salvation, I doubt his resistance level. Believe me, I'm no saint, and if someone with my level of resistance can slip up..."  
  
"You're afraid Rob will backslide to the point of being Robotnik again."  
  
"And if you and I always stick up for him and he goes bad, who's the lynch mob going after first?"  
  
"You have a point. I'm not sure everyone feels safe around him."  
  
"Do you think I should take him back to Earth with me next time?"  
  
"Do it right after your final exams. It'll feel like a vacation to him."  
  
"How much harder do you think it'll be for Rob to fight his own clone?"  
  
"I can't imagine. With the body Rob has now, fighting Nick will be like Sonic fighting Mecha. It's doable, but you'll likely get yourself killed in the process."  
  
"That's true, but he may eventually feel that he has to destroy Mecha, RK, and Nick to make amends."  
  
"If he's THAT suicidal, we'll talk to him about it."  
  
We both turned our attention to the Chao, who by this time were antsy to go Mega. I signalled that we were all ready to go, and the Chao activated their emeralds (which once again had merged with the Element Stones) one at a time. Zinc went into his seismic robot form, and Pilot became a larger, more electrifying version of her Ultimate form that included armor in strategic locations. Chimera grew an extra pair of wings and left trails of fire behind him when he flew. Max morphed into a cross between a huge salamander and a scuba diver, and he carried a trident. Elleno's Ultimate form grew larger, stood on two legs, and formed a quiver of arrows on her back. The arrows, I knew on sight, were essentially tangible laser blasts, since she used the Light Stone. Chalcon grew past his Ultimate form and into a huge Chaos form, probably what Chaos would have looked like if he'd gotten his hands on the 8ce... Since gravity was a relatively elusive element, I knew that although Chalcon's abilities didn't manifest themselves physically, the surprise factor involved would certainly come in handy. Velocity grew in size (What was it with growing in size with every evolution? Couldn't they stay smaller and still be lethal?) and found a set of metal wings fastened to his jet. The wings could be folded out of sight, swept back for speed, or spread wide for distance.  
  
With a bright flash, the Creation Stone blazed into view. I reached for it, but the stone flew out of my reach. As I watched, a fragment of the stone embedded itself in Christine's pendant, which immediately replicated itself. The rest of the Creation Stone rested itself on the strap of Indy's hat. The rest of the Chao reverted to small form, and we all stared for a moment. The smaller of the pendants on Chris's neck held a chunk of the stone, while the normal-sized one had no such piece. The Creation Stone hadn't allowed me to touch it, but rather had gone straight to Indy.  
  
Chris hung the small pendant around Pixel's neck. "That stone," she said. "It wasn't meant for us..."  
  
"It was meant for our Chao," I said, completing her thought.  
  
Now THIS was going to be interesting.  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------  
  
I lay in bed that night and considered the events of the day. Rob had accepted Christ, which was great, but no one could tell whether he might revert to being his old evil self. The Chao could now all go to Mega form, and everything seemed to be going fine.  
  
From previous experience, I knew that everything was about to hit a disruptive event, an event on the scale of *Chaos* disruptive.  
  
I couldn't imagine what could happen to make me think that, so I flipped on my radio. A song was finishing up on the local Christian station: "In the eye of the storm, God is there / When there's armies all around you, God is there..." The fadeout led to a station ID clip and the playlist went straight to Keith Green: "There is a Redeemer / Jesus, God's own Son / Precious Lamb of God, Messiah / Holy One..." I began singing along, the words bringing comfort to my soul: "Thank you, O my Father / For giving us Your Son / And leaving Your Spirit till / The work on Earth is done..." After a couple of verses, I realized that Indy was singing along with me. The two of us sang through a few songs until someone from down the hall knocked on the door and asked us to keep it down. Hanging his fedora on a peg I'd put up for him, Indy snuggled into me as we went to sleep.  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------  
  
My final exams came and went, and I brought both Rob and Indy home with me. I'd been kinda worried about Indy getting along with our cat, Dizz. I knew that Dizz was good with little kids, but though Indy was little, he wasn't a human. I wasn't sure if the cat would take the presence of the newcomer as a guest or as a threat.  
  
Rob I was worried about as well. Despite my prayers for help on the subject, I couldn't shake the feeling that I would be sleeping with the enemy, especially since the two of us would be sharing a room. I decided that trust, while not the wisest policy in other's eyes, would be the best policy in this situation. I felt that if God had worked a change, it would be proven eventually. Despite my decision to trust Rob, I put a password on the Dimensionalizer software, just to prevent an accident, if nothing else.  
  
I expected to see Chris and Pix at Christmastime. Unfortunately, that Chaos-sized event I had foreseen happened the week before the holiday.  
  
------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Rob and I were playing Crazy Taxi on my Dreamcast--it was the only non-strategy based game, board or video, that I had, and Rob was GOOD at strategy-- with Indy taking an occasional turn. Unexpectedly, the Dimensionalizer gate opened and Dizz, who had been sleeping in Indy's lap (so much for my worries), bolted down the hall. Slasher came out first, and inquired, "You have room for everyone?"  
  
"Depends on how many there are with you. What's going on?"  
  
"We're under attack. Nick's found us."  
  
------------------------------------------------------------  
  
As it turned out, "everyone" added up to two hedgehogs; a squirrel; one walrus; a half-robotic rabbit; a double-tailed fox; two echidnas, one of which was mostly roboticized; a winged velociraptor; an anteater; and seven Chao. The rest of the residents of Knothole had remained at Eagle's Nest, where the group had fled to. After destroying all the portal frames in Knothole, they had used the emergency gate at Eagle's Nest. Even with that relatively small group, the entire lot of them were relegated to the basement. Granted, there was carpet, not to mentioned enough pillows and blankets in the linen closet to supply an entire Air Expeditionary Force, but it still wasn't that comfortable down there. I moved my TV, Dreamcast, and stereo down there, as well as stacked all my board games in a corner.  
  
"I can't believe it's come to this," Sonic muttered one morning. "Taking refuge light years from home, all because of that freak of nature."  
  
I noticed Rob's downcast look, so I changed the subject. "Have you guys got your Christmas gifts with you?"  
  
Everyone glanced at me with a look that said, "Yeah, right."  
  
"All right, then," I continued. "Make up some lists."  
  
The surprise swept the room like a tidal wave. "What are you saying?" Serena asked.  
  
"I'm saying that Chris and I will be willing to do some major Christmas shopping over the next week, as long as you guys do one thing," I replied, pulling a box out of the basement closet.  
  
"What's that?" Zephyer inquired.  
  
I slid the box across the floor. It was labeled "Christmas decorations".  
  
"Decorate the house. You can add your own ornaments to the tree if you like."  
  
Within fifteen minutes I was out the door, having faxed the girls' lists to Christine. I also transferred a good portion of some money I had won online in a drawing.  
  
Several million dollars is nice to have when you're Christmas shopping for nearly thirty people.  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------*  
  
While everyone else was decorating and seemed to be cheering up, Rob sat on the couch, passively watching the festivities. Sonic approached the youth. "Hey, man, what's wrong?"  
  
"It's my fault you're all here in the first place. It's that stupid clone of mine. If only I can remember what his weakness is..."  
  
"Weakness? He has a weakness?"  
  
"Yeah, I remember being upset that I couldn't have made an invincible clone of myself..." Rob winced. "Sorry. I'm probably not helping the festive mood any."  
  
"Look, Rob, it's Christmastime. So what if Nick forced us to take refuge here? This may be the best thing that happened to us. We've never really had a major Christmas celebration without having to worry about being attacked. This is the first time we've been able to celebrate Christmas with Ryan. Cheer up, man; the answer will come to you in time. Here, pick a CD for us to listen to."  
  
Rob smiled for the first time in a while, and selected a Mannheim Steamroller CD.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------*  
  
Chris came through the portal that afternoon, and we all came up with ways to pass the time. I did a bit of shopping and bought a dancing game and a couple of dance pads for my Dreamcast. At first everyone was skeptical to try it, but Chris and I tried it a few times to show them all how it worked. I guess the sight of the two of us looking like total goofballs trying to keep up with the steps on screen broke the ice, because soon everyone was clamoring to try it out. Some of them really got into it, especially Zeff and Talon, who had up to now been fairly introverted. We all laughed and tried to outdo each other for a while. I was bushed fairly quickly into it, but even some of the Chao tried it. Eventually they were outdancing everyone, and I went upstairs to check my email and do a bit of surfing. I heard two pairs of feet enter the room, but I didn't see who it was until I pulled up a satellite mapping page. Chris and Rob had come up to see me. "Hey guys, what's up?"  
  
"I think I may have the answer to beating my clone," Rob began, "but that's not what I came up here to say. You've been such a great friend the past few days, and I want you to know that. Letting us all stay in your house and everything... It's given me the answer to our problem. But we need to wait until his conquest is over. We need to wait until he's given up on his search for Sonic."  
  
"What's the answer? How can we beat Nick?"  
  
"I can't tell you that now. There's still some part of my old self that won't let go of me."  
  
"There's only one way to fight it. Let's pray about this." The three of us did, and when we finished, I looked up to see Slasher praying with us.  
  
"This has been great, Ryan," she told me. "This is probably the first Christmas we've had without having to worry about external problems. Any chance of snow? Some of the guys downstairs are wondering if it really is December around here."  
  
"That's Arizona for you," I laughed. "There's snow up in the mountains, but you guys aren't exactly dressed for the weather..." I opened a new Net window and pulled up an online store selling winter clothes.  
  
"Oh, no," Slasher replied. "You've already bought Christmas gifts for us. You're not buying us new clothes on top of that!"  
  
"Who said anything about buying?" I shot back, grinning. "Let's get the Virtualizer warmed up."  
Slasher raised an eyebrow. "Will that work? Won't that be like stealing?"  
  
"Stealing? Hardly. It's not my fault all these stores put up these great pictures of clothes on their websites."  
  
"How do you plan to get real clothes from pictures on the Net?"  
  
"Easy. I have an object replicator in my Virtua Lounge. This baby can produce a virtual object from any picture on the Web. It's all free, and the store doesn't lose that much revenue. After all, I'm only one person, and the only one with a Virtualizer to boot."  
  
"Speaking of boots," Slasher replied, "you have a nice scarf on this page? I can always use one of those..."  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------  
  
While the gang was in the V-Lounge picking out winter clothes, I looked for a suitable location to have a snow day. I soon found a place: a nice, hilly, deserted section of Siberia. When I told Christine where we were going, her reaction was "You're kidding, right?"  
  
"Why not? It's the best location I could think of that wouldn't give away the fact that we've got beings from another dimension hanging out with us."  
  
"You make them sound like aliens, Ryan."  
  
"As far as anyone else will be concerned, they ARE aliens. And besides--"  
  
"Besides nothing. I want to at least have some pine trees to hide behind in a snow fight."  
  
"Oookay, so where do you propose we go?"  
  
Chris scanned my list of alternate dimensions and found the destination she had in mind.  
"Absentia?" I read. "What the heck is that?"  
  
"It's exactly what it sounds like. Earth with no people or animals."  
  
"And yet it undergoes all the same weather patterns and geologic changes at the same time and the same rate." I gave Christine a quick peck on the cheek. "I love the way you think."  
  
At that moment Knux came out of the Virtualizer decked out in earmuffs, scarf, coat, boots, and gloves. "Anyone know where I can get a snowboard?" he asked, his voice muffled by the scarf.   
Chris and I burst out laughing.  
  
"What? What's so funny?" His voice still muffled, we cracked up again.  
  
"Hey, Knux, try dancing in that get up," I chuckled.  
  
The echidna pulled the scarf down and growled, "I hate the cold, so sue me."  
  
"Chris, I believe it's your turn," I hinted, and she walked through the virtua generator doorway to pick out her own outfit.  
  
"I take it that was to talk with me?" Knux inquired, smiling over the scarf.  
  
"Actually, yes. What do you think of this whole clone thing? I mean, Rob says he knows the answer to beating Nick, but he says he can't tell me yet. I mean, is his clone monitoring him somehow? What's going on with that?"  
  
--------------------------------------------------------*  
  
"Are you sure we can't hack into his computer across the Gap?"  
  
"That is affirmative. It is not possible without a physical dimensional link."  
  
"Very well, Mecha. You may go."  
  
The blue robot glided off. This clone thing was not what Mecha had envisioned when he had returned to Mobius. This clone, though he possessed the strategic mind of Robotnik, had none of the technical skill of the old roboticist. Mecha hadn't told the clone about his own trans-dimensional link with the webcam on the young ChaosJedi's PC, for the plain and simple fact that the robot wasn't sure he wanted to work for Robotnick anymore. Sure, he had taken over Knothole, but not without making so much noise that he might as well have sent the Freedom Fighters his battle plan ahead of time.  
  
Mecha left the Final Egg base and headed for one place he knew had a trans-dimensional gate: Floating Island. Before activating his jets, the robot sent a small pulse of info back along his camera feed in response to the discussion going on at that precise moment.  
  
--------------------------------------------------------*  
  
"Well that's odd," I remarked.  
  
"What is it?" the echidna asked.  
  
"I just got a feedback pulse along my webcam feed, and there's a message in my inbox. It's from... Mecha? Why that little--!"  
  
"What? Mecha?"  
  
"That lousy robot must've managed to patch into my webcam feed before he went back to Mobius. He's been spying on me for the last who knows how many months..."  
  
"Um, Ryan, perhaps you should read the message."  
  
"Huh? Why?"  
  
"Because you should be expecting one more for Christmas dinner."  
  
I whipped my head around to face the screen and read the message: "The clone is an imbecile with no technical skill whatsoever. I want to join you. You were right; there truly is nothing left for me here. Give my regards to Sonic.  
"Mecha."  
  
--------------------------------------------------------  
  
"You have got to be kidding me."  
  
"Just be cordial, Sonic. Your attitude never seems to help whenever he's around."  
  
"MY attitude?!?"  
  
"Yes, YOUR attitude. You've got this 'I'm Number One' mentality whenever you even think about Mecha. Can't you just ONCE treat Mecha as a robot with intelligence?"  
  
Sonic glared, but said nothing.  
  
"And don't give me that look. Slasher feels the same way and you know it."  
  
"All right, I'll be nice, but I still don't like it."  
  
"You're handling Rob okay. Why can't you believe that Mecha might have seen the light?"  
  
"Because Mecha isn't capable of emotional thought. Robots can't get saved, Ryan."  
  
Rob cut in. "I may be able to help in that respect."  
  
"You what?" we both asked in reply.  
  
"I've regained some of my technical expertise in the past few hours. I may be able to modify some of Mecha's programming."  
  
"I took Java this semester," I replied. "Let me help."  
  
"Sure, no problem." Rob seemed ecstatic that he might be able to make amends for yet another of his mistakes.  
  
"Exhaustion takes over; will this someday be over?" Serena sang.  
  
"One day at a time," I reminded the hedgehog. "Anyway, I do have time-space coordinates for right this moment, so we can always get back before Mecha shows up. I say let's go for the snow!"  
  
We all piled through the gate and into the Arizona Rockies of Absentia.  
  
-------------------------------------------------------  
  
The snow helped us all forget about robots and clones for a while. I had a feeling Absentia existed for just this purpose: for dimension jumpers to have fun without worrying about external observation.  
  
Everyone had done a little extra "shopping" online, and it showed. I saw skis, snowboards, and even some interesting looking slingshots and guns. Apparently for snowball wars. I picked up a gun and read the directions: Pack launcher with snow; pull back spring loader until locked; pull trigger. I decided that using the good ol' throwing arm would be much faster and a heck of a lot more fun. After all, with throwing a snowball the old fashioned way the reload time depended on how fast you could make a new snowball. I saw that even the "warm-blooded" Chao were out frolicking around, although they were so bundled up you could barely tell who was under the layers of clothing.   
  
I was about to reach down to test the consistency of the snow when someone in an inner tube going a million miles an hour plowed into me. I'd like to say I did a perfect flip and landed on my feet, but I would be lying. No, instead of a perfect 360-degree flip, I got to about 270 degrees before the ground caught up with me. I went head over heels and slammed flat on my back. Instantly I saw about five heads appear above me.  
  
"Someone get the license plate of that semi," I commanded woozily. Abruptly Christine's head popped into view. "Ryan, are you okay? I'm sorry about that; those things are impossible to steer!"  
  
"It's okay, I'm just experienceing deja vu is all..."  
  
My head cleared quickly, and I stood up without help. I immediately headed for safer locales...  
Later in the day we had a three way snow fight, dividing up the group with three Chao per team. Indy, Chris, Pixel, Rob, Slasher, Chalcon, and I were in one base with Slasher doing air recon and bombing missions, and Pixel putting her VR gear to good use. She was using targeting software to help us aim our slingshots and catapults. Suffice to say, we won.  
  
After the battle, we went back to the slopes and raced in inner tubes. Interestingly, although Sonic was an expert on a snowboard, he couldn't keep an inner tube under control to save his life. He hit rocks, trees, bumps, and everything he hit sent him flying into the air. We laughed as everyone collided with each other and caused general mayhem.  
  
We returned to my house hours later exhausted, but refreshed. I heard a noise coming from the basement, and went to investigate. "That's funny," I muttered to myself, "I don't remember leaving my Dreamcast--"  
  
I stopped in mid-breath when I saw Mecha dancing to the game we'd all been playing earlier.  
  
"...on," I finished, staring at the sight.  
  
------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Within minutes everyone was watching the robot dancing in my basement. No one said a word; everyone was too busy staring. Sonic shook himself from the reverie first. When the next level started, Sonic began using the second dance pad to work the controls on his side of the screen.   
  
"Get the camera," I told Slasher. Apparently Mecha wasn't even cognizant of Sonic's presence, or if he was, he didn't show it. I snapped a picture, after which Sonic shot a glare at me, to which I gave him a glance that said, "You want to be outdanced by Mecha? You'd better keep going."  
  
The two of them kept going for the better part of an hour. Mecha, when he finally realized that he was being watched, suddenly stopped. I began applauding, and soon everyone was into it, clapping, cheering, whistling; even Sonic was laughing and clapping. I imagine if the robot was capable of embarassment, he would have been turning red... had he been capable of that, too.  
  
"What is the reason for the applause?" the robot wanted to know.  
  
"You've learned how to have fun, Mecha," Sonic replied. "Welcome to the family."  
  
Rob led the robot to the garage for some "maintenance" some time later.  
  
------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Knuckles found me typing at my computer some time later. "What's up?" he asked me.  
  
"I'm just making a hacked version of DDR," I replied, referring to the dancing game we all played earlier. "I wanted to plug in CD tracks of my own, but it's hard to do that with the DC disc, so I'm messing around with the code."  
  
"That's a cool idea. Listen, what I wanted to talk to you about..."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Well, there's actually a few things. I don't trust Rob that much."  
  
"Tell me something I don't know. To be honest, I don't even trust him fully myself. I hate to say it, but I don't think any of us do. I mean, he's proven himself several times already, but... I don't know, maybe it's just that we know who he really is. Or was..."  
  
"All right, so that's nothing new. What about Indy and Pixel?"  
  
"What about them? They getting along with the others okay?"  
  
"Oh, yeah, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about... They've been asking me stuff, like I'm the Encyclopedia Britannica or something. Pixel's been asking about Chaos8, and Indy is asking about you and Christine." He raised an eyebrow at me. "He's been reading about that prophecy."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I think he's making the connection between you and Chris."  
  
"Listen, pal, there's nothing serious going on between us... yet."  
  
The echidna just chuckled. "Look, I know that things will advance only when you, Chris, and God are all ready to take things further. Anyway, there was something else I wanted to ask you..."  
  
"What's that?"  
  
Knux motioned toward the code I was working on. "Could you teach me how to play this game? I got creamed last time..."  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------  
  
Some time later I let Pixel patch into my computer to surf the Internet. It was amazing watching her; she was switching pages so fast I could hardly keep up. I couldn't figure out what she was looking for until she came across a profile page in some Internet directory. The picture was of Rob, but the name paired with the picture was Jake Carpenter. I read some short bio information and realized... this is who Chaos8 would have been without the intervention of the eighth Chaos Emerald.  
  
As luck would have it, Rob walked in at that second. He looked at the page we were looking at, then at me. I nodded. Rob sat down on the couch and asked, "When?"  
  
"Back during the world collision a year ago. Apparently with the continuum all out of whack, the Interweb lost its grip on the eighth Chaos Emerald, and Jake found it."  
  
"What have I done?"  
  
I sat down next to him. "That's all in the past. If-- WHEN," I corrected myself, "you asked God for salvation, he forgave you of all those old sins. So you were an evil scientist then. Big deal. What's important is that you're here, now, with a group of people who love you."  
  
"Even if you don't trust me."  
  
"That's only because we know who you were and are having a hard time adjusting to who you ARE. I would call it human nature if everyone in the house were human, but you get the idea. We may forgive you, but it's just so hard to forget."  
  
"Hey, it's getting dark. You going to light up the house tonight?"  
  
"You can do it, if you want."  
  
"Sure, thanks."  
  
"Hey, where's Mecha?"  
  
"He's in the garage, undergoing some 'upgrades'," he replied, winking at me.  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------  
  
A couple of days later I got a few arcade machines that had just hit the market: a guitar simulator, a drum sim, a DJ mixing game and a full arcade version of Dance Revolution, the game we'd all been playing to death the past few days. Interestingly, all the games hooked up together, providing for up to six players at once. I toned down the volume out of respect for the neighbors, but other than that, everyone had a blast. The tree sparkled in another corner while presents galore sat underneath. There was rarely a minute that went by that someone wasn't downstairs in our "virtual club"... except for mealtimes. Don't ask me how, but I managed to feed everyone in the house without breaking my budget.  
  
Sometime that day Mecha emerged from the garage lacking the razor-sharp forearms and the hatred we had all come to expect from the robot. His speech patterns had changed as well; the robot actually used contractions in his speech, which threw me for a loop the first time I heard him use one. The metallic hedgehog quickly became adept at the guitar and blew everyone away at the guitar sim, garnering the high score. Dancing, however, didn't prove to be Mecha's strong point. The robot clearly had two left feet.  
  
Rob was clearly warming up to his new life. He joined in more often and smiled and laughed constantly. It was as if God had removed the burden Rob had been carrying around, allowing the youth to enjoy life. Rob proved to be an excellent drummer, and constantly worked on improving his percussion skills. With two hedgehogs on guitar, Rob on the drums, me at the Mixmaster, and two others on the "dance floor", we could've started a band on the spot.  
  
I noticed that Indy and Pixel were the two on the DDR machine most often. Apparently the pair were getting to know each other better, and it became obvious that their resemblance to Christine and me wasn't coincidental. I found myself spending more and more time with Chris, and more than one prediction was made as to when I would "pop the question".  
  
"After we graduate," was my usual response, although I had to admit, something was going on between us. It wasn't anything serious yet, and I doubted it would get THAT serious for a long time, but I confided in Knux that I felt drawn to Chris every time I saw her.  
  
"That's natural. I feel the same way about Zeff, to be honest. I know she can take care of herself, but I can't stand to see her in danger or in pain..."  
  
I zoned out at that moment. I can't say even today what caused it (the most logical answer would be God) but I had the distinct feeling that Christine was in trouble.  
  
I rushed upstairs to find Chris backed against the wall, two blades at her throat.  
  
A low growl rose in my throat. "RK, if you so much as scratch her, so help me God, I'll--"  
  
"You'll what?" the robot chuckled. "Destroy me? She'd be dead before you could take a step. Oh, and I don't think she'll be needing this," he added, holding up Christine's necklace. "I think I'll enjoy killing you both."  
  
Out of the corner of my eye (I kept my eyes trained on the robot to avoid clueing him in) I saw Velocity creep toward Chris, grab a hold of her, and teleport out. I took that instant to draw my lightsaber; the robot responded by stabbing the wall behind where Chris had been.  
  
"Checkmate," I told him, and stabbed the robot right between the eyes.  
  
------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Mecha and I had dragged the robot's carcass out into the backyard to figure out how he'd gotten to Earth and what had sent him here.  
  
The answer became painfully obvious when Mecha patched into RK's visual memory and projected a clip of Nick directing RK on what to do...  
  
"Now listen closely, Robo Knux. I want you to go to the Earth dimension and eliminate the Freedom Fighters, especially the humans. Bring back the one they call Rob alive, but do what you like with the rest of them."  
  
Mecha shut off the feed and looked at me. "You have GOT to be kidding. Nick thinks Mecha bot 4 could eliminate all of us? He couldn't eliminate ONE of us!"  
  
"Well Nick forgot one thing. He hasn't got the technical skills to replace his troops."  
  
"You're planning something, aren't you?"  
  
"Yes, as a matter of fact I am. Let everyone know: strategy meeting in the club after dinner."  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------  
  
Christmas was a day we took off of our planning, for many reasons. Besides the obvious, we all needed a break from thinking about Mobius for a while. A couple of days later, we resumed our planning. I decided to make a quick recon mission into Mobius, and I took Indy with me in my backpack.  
  
That's when everything went wrong.  
  
I didn't even get halfway to the city from the gate when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to find a fist homing in on my face. I blacked out instantly.  
  
When I awoke, I found myself in an alley. Thinking I'd been dragged here by SWATbots and could finish my mission anyway, I cleared my head, checked on Indy (he was okay, since I hadn't landed on him, just concerned) and headed for the mouth of the alley.  
  
The narrow street was crowded with people and neon signs advertising all sorts of things. There were only two problems...  
  
I wasn't in Robotropolis...  
  
And half of everything was in Japanese.  
  
"Aw, shoot," I muttered.  
  
To Be Continued... 


End file.
